Editing International broadcasting (section)

== Means to reach an audience ==
{{Unreferenced section|date=July 2024}}
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.

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.
* Neighboring 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.

=== Mediumwave and longwave broadcasts ===
Most radio receivers in the world receive the [[mediumwave]] band (530&nbsp;kHz to 1710&nbsp;kHz), which at night is capable of reliable reception from 150 to 2,500&nbsp;km distance from a transmitter. Mediumwave is used heavily all over the world 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&nbsp;kHz), which provides reliable long-distance communications over continental distances.

=== <span class="anchor" id="shortwave_broadcast_anchor"></span>Shortwave broadcast ===
[[Shortwave receiver]]s are capable of receiving [[shortwave]] transmissions (2,000 to 30,000&nbsp;kHz or 2 to 30&nbsp;MHz). Depending on time of day, season of year, solar weather and Earth's geomagnetic field, a signal might reach around the world.

[[Image:RCI-BC-ANZ431-dbu.png|thumb|300px|This sort of map is used by radio engineers to determine the best frequencies to reach international audiences on shortwave bands. In this case, a transmitter is sited in the Southern [[Vancouver Island]], using a frequency of 12095 kHz and transmitting at the 500 kW power level. The picture shows a good signal over the Southern Pacific. The signal fades out as it approaches the [[Eastern states of Australia|East Coast of Australia]].]]

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 nations has meant that this is no longer necessarily the case.

Transmitter output power has increased since 1920. Higher transmitter powers do guarantee better reception in the target area. Higher transmitter power in most cases counteracts the lesser effects of [[radio jamming|jamming]].
* 1950s : 100&nbsp;kW
* 1960s : 200&nbsp;kW, early 1960s (2 × 100&nbsp;kW 'twinned')
* 1970s : 300&nbsp;kW, but many 250&nbsp;kW transmitters sold
* 1980s : 500&nbsp;kW sometimes transmitters were "doubled up" to produce 1000&nbsp;kW output
* 1980s-present: 600&nbsp;kW single, 1200&nbsp;kW from twinned transmitters.

International stations generally use special [[HRS type antennas|directional antennas]] to aim the signal toward the intended audience and increase the [[Effective radiated power|effective power]] in that direction. Use of such antennas for international broadcasting began in the mid-1930s and became prominent by the 1950s. By using antennas which focus most of their energy in one direction, a modern station may achieve the equivalent, in that direction, of tens of millions of [[watt]]s of radio power.

=== Digital audio broadcasting ===
{{Unreferenced section|date=July 2024}}{{see also|Digital Radio Mondiale|Internet radio}}

Some international broadcasters have become available via [[digital audio broadcasting]] (DAB) in Europe in the 1990s, and in a similar limited way in the Americas via in-band FM ([[IBOC]]) DAB systems in the US in the 2000s. This is a popular method to reach listeners in cars that would otherwise not be accessible during that part of the day. However, in terms of the global international broadcasting audience the DAB listener base is very small—one can assume that it is less than 2% of the listener base globally.{{says who|date=September 2020}}

=== Television ===
International broadcasting via 24 hour TV news channels has its origins in North America in the early 1980s. CNN technically was the first 24-hour international news channel as it was made available in Canada soon after launch. The BBC World Service considered setting up a global TV news channel as far back as 1975, but abandoned the idea for internal reasons.

Notwithstanding a large number of international 24-hour television news and information broadcasters, the television percentage of viewers is still fairly small when compared to global radio listener numbers.

The rural populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (as well as East Asia) have radio listener bases that are far larger than the largest international TV broadcaster could hope for, yet they could be considered underserved since the end of the Cold War (when these regions had more radio broadcasts targeted at them).

==== Streaming video sites ====
Many international television broadcasters (as well as domestic television broadcasters) have set up accounts on streaming video sites like [[YouTube]] to allow their news and information broadcasts to be globally distributed. The viewer numbers for these sites may seem huge. Cable, TVRO and terrestrial television broadcasters probably have 100 to 1,000 times larger audiences for their international broadcasting content.

International broadcasters known to maintain their own streaming video sites (not authoritative):

* [[ABC Australia (Southeast Asian TV channel)|ABC Australia]]
* [[ABS-CBN News Channel]] (ANC)
* [[Al Jazeera Arabic|Al Jazeera]]
* [[BBC World News]]
* [[CNN International]]
* [[DD News]]
* [[Deutsche Welle]]
* [[France 24]]
* [[i24NEWS]]
* [[RT (TV network)|RT]]
* [[Sky News]]
* [[WION (TV channel)|WION]]

=== RSS feeds and email ===
Many international broadcasters (television or radio) can reach "unreachable" audiences via email and RSS feeds. This is not at all unusual, as the first commonly agreed international broadcast was a Morse Code telegram transmitted from US President Wilson to the German Kaiser (mid-1918) via a high powered longwave transmitter on the US East Coast (this important event in international broadcasting history was described in depth in the IEEE "The History of International Broadcasting" first volume). As Morse Code is considered to be a data format, with email and RSS merely being refinements of the technology it can be said that international broadcasting has a deep relationship with modern-day datacasting.

The reach of RSS and email for international broadcasters is not really known that well, especially considering that emails get forwarded. The numbers for active RSS and email audiences are probably 5 to 20 times larger than for streaming video. It may take into the 2010s to get meaningful numbers with respect to the size of these audiences for assorted technical reasons related to the RSS and email technologies.

Email and RSS feeds can traverse telecommunications barriers that streaming video cannot, thus the larger expected audience numbers. The global economic downturn of 2008-2009 will probably increase the email and RSS audience sizes as fewer people will be able to afford high speed internet connections in North America, Western Europe and the Asia-Pacific regions.