In a television transmission system a digital luminance signal Dy and two digital color difference signals DCHR(1) and DCHR(2) are applied to a distribution circuit 3 at the transmitter end, which digital color difference signals are applied thereto possibly after having been subjected to a vertical decimation operation with a decimation factor R. The distribution circuit 3 partitions all these signals into groups of Q sample per group. After receiving an even number of luminance groups and an even number of chrominance groups, a first half of this number of luminance groups and a first half of this number of chrominance groups is applied to a first auxiliary picture signal output 3(4) of the distribution circuit 3, while simultaneously the...