A physical broadcast channel (PBCH) transmission method and an apparatus. The method includes scrambling PBCH based on a first scrambling code of the PBCH, where the first scrambling code is one of four scrambling codes, where a combination of a second least significant bit and a third least significant bit of a system frame number (SFN) indicates one value of four values, and where the four scrambling codes have a one-to-one correspondence with the four values, and sending the PBCH to a terminal device.