international broadcasting

 

International broadcasting is broadcasting deliberately aimed at a foreign, rather than a domestic, audience. It usually is broadcast by means of longwave, AM Radio, or shortwave radio, but in recent years has also used direct satellite broadcasting and the Internet as means of reaching audiences.

Although radio and television programs do travel outside national borders, in many cases reception by foreigners is accidental. However, for purposes of propaganda, transmitting religious beliefs, keeping in touch with colonies or expatriates, education, improving trade, or increasing national prestige, broadcasting services have operated external services since the 1920s.

Why nations engage in International Broadcasting

There are some very clear-cut as well as some very ambiguous reasons why nations engage in international broadcasting.

Primary reasons

• Portray the nation in a positive light
• Combat negative propaganda produced by other nations, or national liberation fronts
• Increase or decrease immigration
• Put forth an ideology that is advantageous to the nation

Secondary reasons

• Cultural broadcasting
• Keeping expats in touch in the near and far abroad
• Teaching foreign language
• Educational outreach

The early years 1914-1939

The Dutch started regular international broadcasting on short-wave in 1927, following experiments in Eindhoven in 1925. This was followed by the BBC with the BBC Empire Service in 1932.

Other notable early international broadcasters included Vatican Radio (February 12, 1931), Radio Moscow, the official service of the Soviet Union which began broadcasting on long-wave in 1923 (this has since been renamed the Voice of Russia, following the collapse of the Soviet Union).

Broadcasting in South Asia was launched in 1922 in Ceylon - Radio Ceylon, now the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation is the oldest in the region.

In the 1930s, international broadcasting was a key means of promoting Nazi Germany foreign policy. German propaganda was organized under Joseph Goebbels, and played a key role in the German occupation of Austria and the Munich Crisis of 1938. During the Spanish Civil War, the Nationalist forces received a powerful Telefunken transmitter as a gift of Nazi Germany to aid their propaganda efforts, and until 1943 Radio Nacional de España collaborated with the Axis powers to retransmit in Spanish news from the official radio stations of Germany and Italy.

During the Second World War, Russian, German, British, and Italian international broadcasting services expanded and in 1942 the United States initiated its international broadcasting service, the Voice of America. In the Pacific theater, General Douglas MacArthur used shortwave radio to keep in touch with the citizens of the Japanese-occupied Philippine Islands.

Clarence W. Jones started transmitting on Christmas Day, 1931 from Missionary Radio Station HCJB in Quito, Ecuador.

World War II -- modern international broadcasting begins

Shortwave programming was a low priority in the Weimar Republic. Once Hitler assumed power in 1933, shortwave, under the Rundfunk Ausland (Foreign Radio Section), was regarded as a vital element of Nazi propaganda. German shortwave hours were increased from two hours a day to 18 per day, and eventually twelve languages were broadcast on a 24 hour basis, including English. A 100 kilowatt transmitter and antenna complex was built at Zeesen, near Berlin. Specialty target programming to the United States began in 1933, to South Africa, South America, and East Asia in 1934, and South Asia and Central America in 1938.

Mediumwave transmitters on the periphery of the Third Reich provided specialty programs to listeners in neighbouring countries. Nevertheless, the Germans always had a problem staffing their foreign services with announcers who were both technically competent and loyal to Nazi ideas.

Several announcers who became well-known in their countries included British Union of Fascists member William Joyce, who was one of the two "Lord Haw-Haw"s; Frenchmen Paul Ferdonnet and Andre Olbrecht, called "the traitors of [Radio] Stuttgart"; and Americans Frederick William Kaltenbach, "Lord Hee-Haw", and Mildred Gillars, one of the two announcers called "Axis Sally". Listeners to German programs often tuned in for curiosity's sake--at one time, German radio had half a million listeners in the U.S.--but most of them soon lost interest.

For details of German propaganda themes, see propaganda.

The British launched Radio SEAC from Colombo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) during World War II. The station broadcast radio programs to the allied armed forces across the region from their headquarters in Ceylon.

Following the war and German partition, each Germany developed its own international broadcasting station: Deutsche Welle, using studios in Cologne, West Germany, and Radio Berlin International (RBI) in East Germany. RBI's broadcasts ceased shortly before the reunification of Germany on October 3, 1990, and Deutsche Welle took over its transmitters and frequencies.

The Cold War Era (1945-1991): modern practices, modern technology

The Cold War led to increased international broadcasting, as Communist and non-Communist states attempted to influence each other's domestic population. Some of the most prominent Western broadcasters were the Voice of America, the BBC World Service, and the (covertly) CIA-backed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The Soviet Union's most prominent service was Radio Moscow (now the Voice of Russia) and China used Radio Peking (then Radio Beijing, now China Radio International). In addition to the U.S.-Soviet cold war, the Chinese-Russian border dispute led to an increase of the numbers of transmitters aimed at the two nations, and the development of new techniques such as playing tapes backwards for reel-to-reel recorders.

In addition to the superpower states, international broadcast services grew in Europe and the Middle East. Under the presidency of Gamal Nasser, Egyptian transmitters covered the Arab world; Israel's service, Kol Israel, served both to present the Israeli point of view to the world and to serve the Jewish diaspora, particularly behind the Iron Curtain.

Ironically, the isolationist Albania under Enver Hoxha, virtually a hermit kingdom, became one of the most prolific international broadcasters during the latter decades of the Cold War, with Radio Tirana one of the top five broadcasters in terms of hours of programming produced (Although Radio Tirana's programming was almost universally regarded as insufferably dull).

At the end of the Cold War, many international broadcasters cut back on hours and foreign languages broadcast, or reemphasized other language services. For example, in 1984, Radio Canada International broadcast in English, French, German, Spanish, Czech/Slovak, Hungarian, Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian. In 2005, Canada broadcast in English, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, and Spanish There is a trend towards more TV (e.g. BBC World, NHK World, CCTV-9), and news websites. Some services, such as Swiss Radio International, left shortwave altogether and exist in Internet form. In addition, new standards, such as Digital Radio Mondiale, are being introduced, as well as sending programs over the Web to be played back later, as "podcasts."

Daily developments are followed in Radio Netherlands' Media Network blog [1].

Evolution of Shortwave broadcast transmitter power

Transmitter output power has increased since 1920. Higher transmitter powers do guarantee better reception in the target area. Higher transmitter power in most cases counteract the lesser effects of jamming. It is assumed that the input antenna for most shortwave broadcasting is an HR 4/4/1 (in the tropics HR 2/4 or HR 4/2) type antenna -- the most common antenna in use since 1935.

• 1950s : 100 kW
• 1960s : 200 kW, early 1960s (2 x 100 kW 'twinned')
• 1970s : 300 kW, but many 250 kW transmitters sold
• 1980s : 500 kW sometimes transmitters were "doubled up" to produce 1000 Kw output
• 1980s-Present: 600 kW single, 1200 kW from twinned transmitters.

The move from Shortwave to other technologies

In previous decades Shortwave (and sometimes high powered mediumwave) transmission was regarded as the main (and often the only) way in which broadcasters could reach an international audience. In recent years the proliferation of technologies such as satellite broadcasting, the internet and rebroadcasts of programming on AM and FM within target countries (Used mainly by Radio Free Europe following the end of the cold war) has meant that this is no longer necessarily the case.

Shortwave does possess a number of advantages over these newer technologies, including the following:

• The difficulty in censoring programming by authorities in target countries
• Low cost Shortwave radios are widely available in all but the most repressive countries in the world
• In many countries (particularly in most third world nations and in the Eastern bloc during the cold-war era) Ownership of Shortwave receivers is widespread (in many of these countries some domestic stations also used SW)
• Many newer SW receivers are portable and can be battery operated making them useful in difficult circumstances such as war-torn regions, disaster struck areas, refugee camps etc.
• Shortwave radios can be used in situations where internet or satellite technology is unavailable (or unaffordable)

But nowadays these benefits are widely regarded as being outweighed by the drawbacks such as these:

• Shortwave broadcasts often suffer from serious interference problems because of overcrowding on the wavebands, Atmospheric disturbances and Electrical interference problems (particularly in cities) from TV sets, computers, poorly designed domestic appliances and substandard electrical installations.
• Even under ideal reception conditions the audio quality of a shortwave broadcast is usually inferior to that of domestic stations (particularly FM stations)
• As more people around the world have access to television and the internet old technologies such as shortwave radio find it difficult to compete for peoples attention.
• In most Western countries ownership of shortwave radios is limited to interested enthusiasts. Therefore audiences are limited
• The dependence of shortwave radio on atmospheric conditions (The best frequency for hearing certain parts of the world varies by time of day and season) means that it can be difficult to use by non technically minded listeners.

Because of this many broadcasters are discovering they can reach a wider audience through other methods (particularly the internet and satellite television) and are cutting back on (or even entirely dropping) shortwave.

Means

Mediumwave & Longwave

Most radio receivers in the world receive the mediumwave band (530 kHz to 1710 kHz), which at night is capable of reliable reception from 150 to 2,500 km distance from a transmitter. Mediumwave is used heavily the world over for international broadcasting on a formal and informal basis.

In addition, many receivers used in Europe and Russia can receive the longwave broadcast band (150 to 280 kHz), which provides reliable long-distance communications over continental distances.

Shortwave

Yet other receivers are capable of receiving shortwave transmissions (2,000 to 30,000 kHz or 2 to 30 MHz). Depending on time of day, season of year, solar weather and Earth's geomagnetic field, a signal might reach around the world.

An international broadcaster has several options for reaching a foreign audience:

• If the foreign audience is near the broadcaster, high-power longwave and mediumwave stations can provide reliable coverage.
• If the foreign audience is more than 1,000 kilometers away from the broadcaster, shortwave radio is reliable, but subject to interruption by adverse solar/geomagnetic conditions.
• An international broadcaster may use a local mediumwave or FM radio or television relay station in the target country or countries.
• An international broadcaster may use a local shortwave broadcaster as a relay station.
• Neighbouring states, such as Israel and Jordan, may broadcast television programs to each other's viewing public.

An international broadcaster such as the BBC, Radio France International or Germany's Deutsche Welle, may use all the above methods. Several international broadcasters, such as Swiss Radio International, have abandoned shortwave broadcasting altogether, relying on Internet transmissions only. Others, such as the BBC World Service, have abandoned shortwave transmissions to North America, relying on local relays, the Internet, and satellite transmissions.

Listeners

An international broadcaster may have the technical means of reaching a foreign audience, but unless the foreign audience has a reason to listen, the effectiveness of the broadcaster is in question.

One of the most common foreign audiences consists of expatriates, who cannot listen to radio or watch television programs from home. Another common audience is radio hobbyists, who attempt to listen as many countries as possible and obtain verification cards or letters (QSLs). A third audience consists of journalists, government officials, and key business persons, who exert a disproportionate influence on a state's foreign or economic policy.

A fourth, but less publicized audience, consists of intelligence officers and agents who monitor broadcasts for both open-source intelligence clues to the broadcasting state's policies and for hidden messages to foreign agents operating in the receiving country. The BBC started its monitoring service in Caversham, Reading in 1936 (now BBC Monitoring). In the United States, the DNI Open Source Center (formerly the Central Intelligence Agency's Foreign Broadcast Information Service) provides the same service. Copies of OSC/FBIS reports can be found in many U.S. libraries that serve as government depositories. In addition, a number of hobbyists listen and report "spook" transmissions.

Without these four audiences, international broadcasters face difficulty in getting funding. In 2001, for example, the BBC World Service stopped transmitting shortwave broadcasts to North America, and other international broadcasters, such as YLE Radio Finland, stopped certain foreign-language programs.

However, international broadcasting has been successful when a country does not provide programming wanted by a wide segment of the population. In the 1960s, when there was no BBC service playing rock and roll, Radio Television Luxembourg (RTL) broadcast rock and roll, including bands such as the Beatles, into the United Kingdom. Similar programming came from an unlicensed, or "pirate" station, Radio Caroline, which broadcast from a ship in the international waters of the North Sea.

Restricting reception

In many cases, governments do not want their citizens listening to international broadcasters. In Nazi Germany, a major propaganda campaign, backed by law and prison sentences, attempted to discourage Germans from listening to such stations. In addition, the German government sold a cheap "People's Receiver" that could not pick up distant signals well. In North Korea, all receivers are sold with fixed frequencies, tuned to local stations.

The most common method of preventing reception is jamming, or broadcasting a signal on the same frequencies as the international broadcaster. Germany jammed the BBC European service during the Second World War. Russian and Eastern European jammers were aimed against Radio Free Europe, other Western broadcasters, and against Chinese broadcasters during the nadir of Sino-Soviet relations. In 2002, the Cuban government jammed the Voice of America's Radio Marti program and the Chinese government jammed broadcasts made by adherents of Falun Gong.

Yet another method of preventing reception involves moving a domestic station to the frequency used by the international broadcaster. During the Batista government of Cuba, and during the Castro years, Cuban medium-wave stations broadcast on the frequencies of popular South Florida stations. In October 2002 Iraq changed frequencies of two stations to block the Voice of America's Radio Sawa program.

Jamming can be defeated by using very powerful transmitting antennas, carefully choosing the transmitted frequency, changing transmitted frequency often, using Single Sideband, and properly aiming the receiving antenna.

International Broadcasters

Radio

Europe

Country	Name of Radio Service	Website
United Kingdom	BBC World Service	[2]
Ireland	RTÉ Europe	[3]
France	Radio France Internationale	[4]
Germany	Deutsche Welle	[5]
Spain	Radio Exterior de España	[6]
Italy	Radio RAI International	[7]
Italy	NEXUS International Broadcasting Association	[8]
Italy	European Gospel Radio	[9]
The Netherlands	Radio Netherlands	[10]
Belgium (Wallonia)	RTBF International	[11]
Belgium (Flanders)	Radio Vlaanderen Internationaal	[12]
Portugal	RDP Internacional	[13]
Switzerland	Swiss Radio International	[14]
Austria	Ö1 International	[15]
Poland	Radio Polonia	[16]
Czech Republic	Radio Prague	[17]
Slovakia	Radio Slovakia International	[18]
Hungary	Radio Budapest
Burma	Democratic Voice of Burma	[19]
Sweden	Radio Sweden International	[20]
Finland	YLE Radio Finland3	[21]
Slovenia	Radio Slovenia International	[22]
Croatia	Voice of Croatia	[23]
Serbia	International Radio of Serbia	[24]
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina	Radio Federnal International (639 languages of the World) (2 January 2007)	coming soon of the Website
Romania	Radio Romania International	[25]
Bulgaria	Radio Bulgaria	[26]
Albania	Radio Tirana	[27]
Greece (Athens)	Voice of Greece	[28]
Greece (Thessaloniki)	Radio Station of Macedonia	[29]
Cyprus	CyBC Third channel
Russia	Voice of Russia	[30]
Belarus	Radio Station Belarus	[31]
Ukraine	Radio Ukraine International	[32]
Moldova	Radio Moldova International
Transnistria	Radio PMR	[33]
Azerbaijan	The International Azerbaijan Radio
Vatican City	Vatican Radio	[34]
Independent (but has close links with VOA)	Radio Free Europe	[35]
Former Countries	Former Services
Norway	Radio Norway International2
Malta (with Libya)	Voice of the Mediterranean2
German Democratic Republic	Radio Berlin International
USSR	Radio Moscow

1. Ceased shortwave and satellite operations 30 October 2004
2. Ceased 1 January 2002
3. Ceased shortwave operations 1 January 2007. Still broadcasts on satellite and medium wave.

North & South America

Country	Name of Radio Service	Website
Canada	Radio Canada International	[36]
United States of America	Voice of America 1	[37]
Cuba	Radio Habana Cuba	[38]
Brazil	Rádio Nacional do Brasil	[39]
Ecuador	HCJB	[40]
Argentina	Radiodifusión Argentina al Exterior	[41]

It is possible to listen to Canadian MW radio in the US. Canada is saturated with US MW stations at night.

1. Under United States law (the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948), the Voice of America is forbidden to broadcast directly to American citizens.

Asia

Country	Name of Radio Service	Website
Israel	Israel Radio International	[42]
Malaysia	Voice of Malaysia	[43]
Pakistan	Radio Pakistan	[44]
India	All India Radio	[45]
Iran	Voice of Iran	[46]
Sri Lanka	Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation	[47]
Turkey	Voice of Turkey	[48]
Mongolia	Voice of Mongolia	[49]
People's Republic of China	China Radio International	[50]
South Korea	KBS World Radio	[51]
North Korea	Voice of Korea
Japan	NHK Radio Japan	[52]
Thailand	Radio Thailand World Service	[53]
Singapore	Radio Singapore International	[54]
Republic of China (Taiwan)	Radio Taiwan International	[55]
Vietnam	Voice of Vietnam	[56]

Oceania

Country	Name of Radio Service	Website
Australia	Radio Australia	[57]
New Zealand	Radio New Zealand International	[58]

• Some RNZ MW frequency reception is possible in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania with longwire (150m +) MW antennas.
• Some ABC, and private MW broadcasters cross into NZ seasonally as well.

Africa

Country	Name of Radio Service	Website
Morocco (with France)	MEDI 1 (Radio Méditerranée Internationale)	[59]
Tunisia	RTCI (Radio Tunis Chaîne Internationale)	[60]
Algeria	Radio Algérienne
Libya	Voice of Africa
Equatorial Guinea
[61] [62]	Equatorial Guinea
[63] [http;//www.radioafricanetwork.com]	Equatorial Guinea
[64] [65]	Kenya	Kenya Broadcasting Corporation	[66]
Nigeria	Voice of Nigeria	[67]
South Africa	Channel Africa	[68]

Television

Europe

1. An alliance of France Télévisions & Arte in France, RTBF in Wallonia, Belgium, Radio-Canada , Télé-Québec and TVA in Canada, TSR in Switzerland & RFO in Overseas France.

North & South America

Country of Origin	Name of Television Service	Free-to-air/encrypted	Website
United Kingdom	BBC World	Free-to-air	[69]
United Kingdom	BBC Prime	Encrypted	[70]
United Kingdom	BBC Entertainment	Encrypted	[71]
France	France 24	Free-to-air	[72]
A France-based alliance of broadcasters of 5 countries 1	TV5MONDE	Free-to-air in Europe, Encrypted elsewhere	[73]
Germany	DW-TV	Free-to-air	[74]
Belgium (Wallonia)	RTBF Sat	Free-to-air	[75]
The Netherlands & Belgium (Flanders)	BVN Beste van Nederland en Vlaanderen	Free-to-air	[76]
Greece (& Cyprus)	ERT World	Free-to-air (in Europe), Encrypted (in N.America)	[77]
Spain	TVE Internacional	Free-to-air in Europe, Encrypted elsewhere	[78]
Portugal	RTP Internacional	Free-to-air	[79]
Portugal	RTP África	Free-to-air
Portugal	SIC Internacional	Free-to-air/encrypted
Portugal	SIC Notícias	Free-to-air/encrypted
Poland	TVP Polonia	Free-to-air/encrypted	[80]
Ukraine	UTR	Free-to-air	[81]
Norway	Free-to-air
Sweden	SVT Europa	Encrypted	[82]
Finland	TV Finland	Encrypted (Free-to-air in Finnish-speaking areas of Sweden)	[83]
Croatia	Picture of Croatia (North America only)	Encrypted (2 hours free-to-air)
Serbia & Montenegro	RTS Satelit	Free-to-air	[84]
Romania:	TVR INTERNATIONAL	Free-to-air	[85]
Bulgaria	ТВ България (TV Bulgaria)		[86]
Russia	РТР-Планета (RTR Planet)	Free-to-air and encrypted
Russia	Russia Today TV	Free-to-air	[87]
Bosnia and Herzegovina	BHRT World	Free-to-air
Country of Origin	Name of Television Service	Free-to-air/encrypted	Website
United States of America	Worldnet (Voice of America)	Free-to-air 1	[88]
Cuba	Cubavision Internacional	Free-to-Air
An alliance of 4Latin American countries 2	teleSUR	Free-to-air	[89]
Brazil	TV Brasil

1. Under United States law (the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948), the Voice of America is forbidden to broadcast directly to American citizens.
2. The countries are Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba, and Uruguay.

Asia

Country of Origin	Name of Television Service	Free-to-air/encrypted	Website
China	CCTV-4, CCTV-9	Free-to-air/encrypted	[90]
South Korea	KBS WORLD	Free-to-air	[91]
South Korea	Arirang TV	Free-to-air	[92]
Japan	NHK World TV	Free-to-air	[93]
Japan	NHK World Premium (TV Japan)	Encrypted	[94]
Myanmar (Burma)	Democratic Voice of Burma	Free-to-air	[95]
Vietnam	VTV4	Free-to-air

Oceania

Country of Origin	Name of Television Service	Free-to-air/encrypted	Website
Australia	Australia Network	Free-to-air	[96]
New Zealand	TVNZ	Provides content on a contractual basis	[97]
New Zealand	Radio New Zealand International	Free-to-air	[98]

Internationally, TVNZ has helped provide television services in Pacific Island nations such as the Cook Islands, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands.

TVNZ provides much of the programming but scheduling and continuity are done locally.

• Because of its history TVNZ has inherited and developed its own services in the production and broadcasting services area.
• These include The New Zealand Television Archive, production facilities, television school.
• TVNZ also operated a satellite services division organising and downlink facilities and across the globe, but this service was wound down in 2005.

Both TV One and TV2 are also available "in the clear" over DVB-S on Optus B1. A SKY TV set-top box is not required as any DVB-S satellite set-top box or tuner will work.

Africa

Country of Origin	Name of Television Service	Free-to-air/encrypted	Website
South Africa	SABC Africa	Encrypted	[99]

Related links

• Hard-Core-DX - serious information about shortwave/AM radio stations
• [100] American Radio Relay League (ARRL), Newington, CT.
• Shortwave
• Shortwave bands
• FTA Receiver
• Mediumwave - MW broadcasts generally don't travel as far as shortwave broadcasts, but MW is still used for international broadcasting, particularly to neighbouring countries
• englishradio.co.uk Cataloguing and reviewing every English language radio station
• SWDXER ¨The SWDXER¨ - with general SWL information and radio antenna tips.
• Easy-to-construct "interference-reducing" antennas for shortwave portables: U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau and K3MT (the "Villard antenna")
• World Radio TV Handbook The Bible of International Broadcasting

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