Worldnet Television and Film Service

Last updated
Worldnet Television and Film Service
Worldnet logo.jpg
Country United States
Broadcast areaWorldwide
Headquarters Washington, D.C.
Programming
Language(s)Multilingual
Ownership
Owner Broadcasting Board of Governors
History
Launched1983
ClosedMay 16, 2004 (merged to VOA)
Links
Websitewww.ibb.gov/worldnet (closed)

Worldnet Television and Film Service was an American state-funded cable and satellite television channel directed to audiences outside of the United States. Its studios were located in Washington, D.C. [1] It broadcast 24 hours a day. [1] Worldnet had the mission to show "a balanced and accurate picture of American society, policies, and people". [1]

Contents

History

Worldnet was launched in 1983. [1] [2] In the beginning, it worked under the umbrella of the United States Information Agency (USIA). [3] Later, Worldnet became part of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). [1] [4]

Between 1993 and 1997, under the leadership of Clinton appointee Charles Fox, Worldnet’s audience expanded from less than 300 to 1400 broadcast and cable outlets in Africa, the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East. In 1997, Fox led the organization from analog to a digital platform and supervised the production and distribution of "Window on America" series that encouraged Ukraine's adoption of democracy.

On September 11, 2001, Worldnet, using Bloomberg Television, interrupted its regular programming on 7 satellites to broadcast raw footage of terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, DC. [5]

On May 16, 2004, Worldnet was merged into the Voice of America to reduce costs. [5] [6] It become "VOA TV".

Programs

Programs produced and syndicated by Worldnet were provided in Arabic, Croatian, English, French, Mandarin, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Serbian, Ukrainian, among others. [1] They were transmitted via satellite, and also via foreign TV broadcast and cable systems. [1]

Some of the syndicated programming produced by other U.S. networks included the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Nightly Business Report , Computer Chronicles , and Bloomberg Information Television . [1]

American English-teaching telecourses were part of the list of programs. [7] One of them was Crossroads Cafe, which combined comedy, drama, and English skills training. [7]

Law

The Smith–Mundt Act of 1948 prohibited Worldnet from broadcasting directly to American citizens. [8] The intent of the legislation was to protect the American public from propaganda by its own government. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">USA Network</span> American pay television channel

USA Network is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madison Square Garden Sports Network, one of the first national sports cable television channels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Voice of America</span> International US-owned broadcaster

Voice of America is an international broadcasting state media network funded by the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest of the U.S. international broadcasters. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content in 48 languages, which it distributes to affiliate stations around the world. Its targeted and primary audience is non-American outside of the US borders. As of November 2022, its reporting reached 326 million adults per week across all platforms. It is financed by the U.S. Agency for Global Media after the approval of the Congress.

International broadcasting consists of radio and television transmissions that purposefully cross international boundaries, often with then intent of allowing expatriates to remain in touch with their countries of origin as well as educate, inform, and influence residents of foreign countries. Content can range from overt propaganda and counterpropaganda to cultural content to news reports that reflect the point of view and concerns of the originating country or that seek to provide alternative information to that otherwise available as well as promote tourism and trade. In the first half of the twentieth century, international broadcasting was used by colonial empires as a means of connecting colonies with the metropole. When operated by governments or entities close to a government, international broadcasting can be a form of soft power. Less frequently, international broadcasting has been undertaken for commercial purposes by private broadcasters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Television in the United States</span>

Television is one of the major mass media outlets in the United States. In 2011, 96.7% of households owned television sets; about 114,200,000 American households owned at least one television set each in August 2013. Most households have more than one set. The percentage of households owning at least one television set peaked at 98.4%, in the 1996–1997 season. In 1948, 1 percent of U.S. households owned at least one television; in 1955, 75 percent did. In 1992, 60 percent of all U.S. households had cable television subscriptions. However, this number has fallen to 40% in 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ABS-CBN Corporation</span> Media and entertainment conglomerate in the Philippines

ABS-CBN Corporation is a Filipino media company based in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines. It is the largest entertainment television and film production, program syndication provider, film distributor and media conglomerate in the Philippines. It is a subsidiary of Lopez Holdings Corporation, which is owned by the López family. ABS-CBN was formed by the merger of Alto Broadcasting System (ABS) and Chronicle Broadcasting Network (CBN). The conglomerate is metonymically called as "Ignacia" due to the location of its headquarters ABS-CBN Broadcasting Center along Mother Ignacia Street in Quezon City.

Hearst Television, Inc. is a broadcasting company in the United States owned by Hearst Communications, made up of a group of television and radio stations, and Hearst Media Production Group, a distributor of programming in broadcast syndication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tribune Broadcasting</span> American television and radio broadcast company (1924–2019)

Tribune Broadcasting Company, LLC was an American media company which operated as a subsidiary of Tribune Media, a media conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. The group owned and operated television and radio stations throughout the United States, as well as full- or partial-ownership of cable television and national digital subchannel networks.

Superstation is a term in North American broadcasting that has several meanings. Commonly, a "superstation" is a form of distant signal, a broadcast television signal—usually a commercially licensed station—that is retransmitted via communications satellite or microwave relay to multichannel television providers over a broad area beyond its primary terrestrial signal range.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fox Television Stations</span> Television station division of Fox

Fox Television Stations, LLC is a group of television stations in the United States owned-and-operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of the Fox Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">America One</span> U.S. television network

America One was an American television network established in 1995 by USFR Media Group through its America One Television subsidiary. The network served over 170 LPTV, Class A, full-power, cable and satellite affiliate stations. It was one of the first TV stations to have online live video streaming, before the tech bubble burst in 2000. At least twenty of the stations carried America One's complete 168-hour weekly transmission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">News broadcasting</span> Medium of broadcasting news events

News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or television studio newsroom, or by a broadcast network. A news broadcast may include material such as sports coverage, weather forecasts, traffic reports, political commentary, expert opinions, editorial content, and other material that the broadcaster feels is relevant to their audience. An individual news program is typically reported in a series of individual stories that are presented by one or more anchors. A frequent inclusion is live or recorded interviews by field reporters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">E. W. Scripps Company</span> American media company

The E. W. Scripps Company, also known as Scripps, is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglomerate. The company is headquartered at the Scripps Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Its corporate motto is "Give light and the people will find their own way", which is symbolized by the media empire's longtime lighthouse logo. In terms of market reach, Scripps is the second largest operator of ABC affiliates, behind the Sinclair Broadcast Group, and ahead of Hearst Television and Tegna. Scripps also owns a number of free-to-air multi-genre digital subchannel multicast networks through its Scripps Networks division, including the Ion Television network and Scripps News.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The WB 100+ Station Group</span> National feed of The WB for smaller markets

The WB 100+ Station Group was a national programming service of The WB—owned by the Warner Bros. Entertainment division of Time Warner, the Tribune Company, and group founder and longtime WB network president Jamie Kellner—intended primarily for American television markets ranked #100 and above by Nielsen Media Research estimates. Operating from September 21, 1998 to September 17, 2006, The WB 100+ comprised an affiliate group that was initially made exclusively of individually branded cable television channels serving areas that lacked availability for a locally based WB broadcast affiliate and supplied a nationalized subfeed consisting of WB network and syndicated programs; in the network's waning years, the WB 100+ group began maintaining primary affiliations on full-power and low-power stations in certain markets serviced by the feed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">All News Channel</span> Former American satellite television news channel

All News Channel (ANC) was an American satellite television news channel and broadcast syndication service operated as a joint venture between Viacom and CONUS Communications, itself a division of Hubbard Broadcasting. Launched on November 30, 1989 and operating until September 30, 2002, its format consisted of half-hourly rotating newscasts presented in a rolling news wheel schedule, incorporating story packages gathered from in-house reporting staffs and sourced from local television stations that maintained agreements with CONUS to supply content for the cooperative satellite news video-sharing service.

Disney General Entertainment Content (DGEC), formerly Capital Cities/ABC,ABC Group, Disney–ABC Television Group and the second incarnation of Walt Disney Television, is part of Disney Entertainment, a division of The Walt Disney Company that oversees its owned-and-operated television content, assets and sub-divisions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The CW Plus</span> Secondary syndication feed of The CW

The CW Plus is a secondary national broadcast television syndication service feed of The CW, whose controlling stake of 75% is owned by Nexstar Media Group, with Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery holding their own 12.5% stakes. It is intended primarily for American television markets ranked #100 and above by Nielsen Media Research estimates. The service is primarily carried on digital subchannels and multichannel subscription television providers, although it maintains primary affiliations on full-power and low-power stations in certain markets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States cable news</span> News disseminated through cable television networks

Cable news channels are television networks devoted to television news broadcasts, with the name deriving from the proliferation of such networks during the 1980s with the advent of cable television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WGN America</span> American television network (1978–2021)

WGN America was an American subscription television network that operated from November 9, 1978 to February 28, 2021. The service was originally uplinked to satellite by United Video Inc. as a national feed of Chicago independent station WGN-TV, making the station's programming available to cable and satellite providers throughout the United States as the second nationally distributed "superstation".

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Worldnet Fact Sheet". Worldnet. Archived from the original on 21 April 1999. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
  2. McPhail, Thomas L. (2006). Global Communication: Theories, Stakeholders, and Trends. Blackwell Publishing. p. 168. ISBN   9781405150101 . Retrieved 27 November 2014.
  3. Blanchard, Margaret A. (2013). History of the Mass Media in the United States: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. p. 101. ISBN   978-1-57958-012-4 . Retrieved 27 November 2014.
  4. Vaughn, Stephen L. (2008). Encyclopedia of American Journalism. Routledge. p. 549. ISBN   978-0-203-94216-1 . Retrieved 27 November 2014.
  5. 1 2 "Innovations for a New Century – Multimedia Expansion". Voice of America. 1 March 2007. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
  6. "WORLDNET merges with VOA". Voice of America. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
  7. 1 2 "The Message and the Medium". Website of WORLDNET. Archived from the original on 7 December 1998. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
  8. "Legal information". Worldnet. Archived from the original on 6 December 1998. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
  9. Broderick, James F., and Darren W. Miller. Consider the Source: A Critical Guide to 100 prominent news and information sites on the Web. Medford, NJ: Information Today, 2007. ISBN   0-910965-77-3, ISBN   978-0-910965-77-4. p. 388