[BC] Program Delivery Question

[Rich Wood]

------ At 08:15 PM 3/2/2009, Paul B. Walker, Jr. wrote: -------

>I know that if you are a US broadcaster wanting to supply programming to a
>station in Mexico, you would have to get international authorization.

I'm assuming this still applies. This was my situation at XTRA, 
Tijuana/San Diego. We were originating programming in San Diego using 
a Mexican station to transmit back to the US. That required a 325B waiver.

If you're a US network distributing programming to Mexico City 
there's no intention of transmitting it back to the US. I programmed 
XEVIP, Mexico City, from San Diego. There was no Mexican prohibition. 
XEVIP was the only English language station in the city and fancied 
itself serving English-speaking diplomats in the city. The owner of 
the XTRA  (actually his Mexican-born kids) was a personal friend of 
the Mexican President. Jose Lopez Portillo actually liked Mexican 
border stations transmitting to the US. He thought it added prestige 
to the country. He even allowed us to produce an English language 
version of the weekly "Mexican Hour" and distribute it to other 
border stations that "served" the US in English.

>However, what if you are an island in the southern part of the Atlantic
>ocean that is a British commonwealth and are delivering programming via a
>webstream to an FCC licensed station in the USA?..
>Is that legal?

Sure. NPR stations do it every day, though I believe they use 
satellites. Many carry the BBC. From a legal standpoint I believe 
it's considered simply using another network. The VOA does something 
similar. They feed local stations in their target countries via 
satellite. That's why Shortwave is disappearing in the US and the UK.

Personally, I think it's was a dumb move. Politics change. Piss off 
the President of Ugubugulu and he orders the feed stopped. He 
couldn't do that with Shortwave.

There are many (primarily Talk) stations that carry shows that 
originate all over the world via ISDN. I ran two networks that 
distributed those shows and never ran into a requirement of prior 
authorization. At WOR we often originated Joan Rivers from London. 
Granted, these were done for special events but no one said a word 
beyond "it's gonna cost ya."

Rich

Rich