A method to optimize a bandwidth of a digital television (DTV) transport stream and to determine transmission cycles for tables to be transmitted as part of the DTV transport stream, the method including setting transmission cycles for event information tables EIT0, EIT1, EIT2, and EIT3, each event information table containing program information covering different time span, where the transmission cycle for the EIT0 is set narrower than the transmission cycle for the EIT1. Setting a transmission cycle for an extended text table ETT3 containing program description information associated with the EIT3 where the transmission cycle of the ETT3 is greater than a sum of the transmission cycle of the EIT0 and the transmission cycle of the EIT1.