The TV will try and amplify and display any signal. Without a station, it will end up amplifying random radio noise and tiny fluctuations in the amplifier circuits themselves.
The momentary signal strength is interpreted as brightness of a spot which is rapidly scanned over the display. In this case the signal is random so every spot on the screen will be a random brightness, changing every frame.
Modern digital TVs won’t do this, because with compressed video recognizable data is needed to even attempt displaying a picture.
As for the sources of the radio noise, most of it is from electrons being jostled by heat, some from space. (Including the cosmic microwave background others have mentioned)
The electron jostling (thermal noise) is the reason the receivers on radio telescope as cooled to insanely low temperatures often with liquid helium.
The TV will try and amplify and display any signal. Without a station, it will end up amplifying random radio noise and tiny fluctuations in the amplifier circuits themselves.
The momentary signal strength is interpreted as brightness of a spot which is rapidly scanned over the display. In this case the signal is random so every spot on the screen will be a random brightness, changing every frame.
Modern digital TVs won’t do this, because with compressed video recognizable data is needed to even attempt displaying a picture.
As for the sources of the radio noise, most of it is from electrons being jostled by heat, some from space. (Including the cosmic microwave background others have mentioned)
The electron jostling (thermal noise) is the reason the receivers on radio telescope as cooled to insanely low temperatures often with liquid helium.