Anti-Cuba Broadcast to Expand Across Hemisphere Via Satellite TV

Posted by Stephen Peacock - November 10, 2005 at 6:08 pm
The anti-Cuba TV Marti produced by the U.S. government may soon expand its reach across Latin America. According to a recently obtained planning document, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) hopes to step up pressure on Cuban leader Fidel Castro by securing air time on DirecTV.

It intends to accomplish this task by convincing TV programmers currently leasing time via DirectTV's Latin American channels to sell portions of their time slots to BBG's International Broadcasting Bureau. Those channels cannot otherwise be distributed to audiences in the U.S., the document emphasizes. The goal is to enable the bureau's Office of Cuba Broadcasting to deliver what it characterizes as "news and discussion programs" to a broader audience across the hemisphere.

The BBG currently is conducting a market survey of programming distributors who can disseminate TV Marti "one or more hours per day during the following timeframe: Monday through Sunday; 7 AM thru 12 Midnight EDT Eastern Daylight Savings Time (EDST) for the period October 1, 2005 through September 30, 2006. (Hours can be offered during the same time period Monday through Friday, or Saturday and Sunday)."

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About Stephen Peacock

I'm currently a high school English teacher and writer. I'm also a former Washington, DC, journalist, having worked for Communications Daily and Washington Internet Daily (WID), investigative newsletters that cover the telecommunications, broadcast and Internet industries. Following the 9/11 attacks, my news beat expanded beyond Capitol Hill telecom/TV/IT policy and began to include technology-policy coverage at the Pentagon and Dept. of Homeland Security. I've written over a thousand articles about government and industry affairs, and I'm pleased to say that I was the reporter who broke the story about the Total Information Awareness surveillance/data-collection initiative of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. I've written articles for publications including NACLA Report on the Americas, Drug Enforcement Report, Corrections Journal, and The Tampa Tribune. I've also written a memoir about my former career as a plainclothes security officer of the Helmsley Palace hotel in New York City, Hotel Dick: Harlots, Starlets, Thieves & Sleaze.
http://jerseysandstorm.blogspot.com/
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Another U.S. Response to Telesur

Submitted on November 11th, 2005 by Benjamin Melançon
I take it the concern about not broadcasting into the United States stems from laws against the U.S. government directing propaganda at its own citizens?

Restrictions

Submitted on November 12th, 2005 by Stephen Peacock
Any time the U.S. Congress passes an apppropriations bill for a federal entity, it always includes a segment banning the use of taxpayer funds such domestic propaganda. The fact that the BBG planning document emphasizes this ban against simultaneous broadcasts into the U.S (and without referring to the restrictions or using the term propaganda) speaks volumes about what constitutes "news and discussion" in the eyes of the federal government.

Deadline Extension

Submitted on November 29th, 2005 by Stephen Peacock
The deadline by which Latin American satellite-broadcast providers can submit "capability statements" for this project was extended from Nov. 10 to Nov. 25, according to a recently updated sources-sought notice.

The BBG gave no explanation for the deadline extension. Lack of interest, perhaps? Or just a lack of spare satellite channel-capacity available for leasing?

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About Stephen Peacock

Personal Website
http://jerseysandstorm.blogspot.com/

Biography
I'm currently a high school English teacher and writer. I'm also a former Washington, DC, journalist, having worked for Communications Daily and Washington Internet Daily (WID), investigative newsletters that cover the telecommunications, broadcast and Internet industries. Following the 9/11 attacks, my news beat expanded beyond Capitol Hill telecom/TV/IT policy and began to include technology-policy coverage at the Pentagon and Dept. of Homeland Security. I've written over a thousand articles about government and industry affairs, and I'm pleased to say that I was the reporter who broke the story about the Total Information Awareness surveillance/data-collection initiative of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. I've written articles for publications including NACLA Report on the Americas, Drug Enforcement Report, Corrections Journal, and The Tampa Tribune. I've also written a memoir about my former career as a plainclothes security officer of the Helmsley Palace hotel in New York City, Hotel Dick: Harlots, Starlets, Thieves & Sleaze.