Broadcast Ready

What does the term Broadcast ready mean, for American television context? What should the footage settings be?

I'm going to do a search on it this evening, but I just wanted to pose the question here so that I have some educated answers in the next couple of hours before I get home.

Thanks in advance.
Aveek

Broadcast ready means whatever the individual Network to which are are submitting wants it to mean.

I don't know about the visuals, but each Network has its own standards as to DialNorm (the maximum/peak level of the dialog) and overall peak audio volume levels. It can also vary as to which channel will carry what information. For example, one network requires:

1=center, 2=front left, 3=front right, 4=rear left, 5=rear right, 6=LFE

but another network requires:

1=front left, 2=center, 3=front right, 4=LFE, 5=rear right, 6=rear left

It can even vary between channels within a network; Nickelodeon has different specs than MTV even though they have the same parent company.