Link TV

Link TV is a San Francisco based nationwide television channel that describes itself as broadcasting "programs that engage, educate and activate viewers to become involved in the world."

It goes on to say "Link TV is the first nationwide television channel dedicated to providing Americans with global perspectives on news, events and culture. The channel was launched in December 1999, on DIRECTV and added to EchoStar's DISH Network a few weeks later. Currently, the channel is available as a basic service in over 29 million U.S. homes that receive direct broadcast satellite television (DBS). The DBS broadcast rights for Link TV were obtained under FCC guidelines requiring the DBS operators to allocate 4% of their channels for non-commercial public service programming."

Link TV programs are also available on the web.

Background
Link TV co-founder and president Kim Spencer says the channel was created from its modest San Francisco headquarters, "as a way for people to meet the rest of the world face to face, and as an antidote to misunderstanding, insularity, and the American-centric view that is pervasive on this nation’s TV sets."

"Watch, for example, Mosaic: World News from the Middle East, the Link TV program that has attracted the most attention during the war in Iraq. This daily program monitors news broadcasts from 16 nations, Egypt to Abu Dhabi (in United Arab Emirates), Israel to Iran, Syria to Yemen, translating the coverage into English and offering Americans rare insight into how events are seen, interpreted, and reported in the Mideast."

Funding
Link TV is funded by grants from various foundations including The Annenberg Foundation, Catherine T. and John D. MacArthur Foundation, Wallace Global Fund, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Shei'rah Foundation, Open Society Institute, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Otto Haas Charitable Trust, and Park Foundation, as well as contributions from individual viewers.

Personnel

 * Kim Spencer, President
 * Joel Ficks, Executive Vice President
 * Jamal Dajani, Senior Director, Middle Eastern Programming
 * David Michaelis, Senior Editor, Current Affairs
 * Neil Sieling, Acquisitions, New Media, and Special Projects

Board
Accessed September 2011:


 * Don Buder - Board Chair, Partner, MBV Law, LLP
 * Judy Tam - Vice Chair, Executive Vice President, Independent TV Service (ITVS), Documentary funding executive
 * Sandy Socolow - Board Secretary, Former Senior Producer, CBS News, TV production executive
 * Robert Cook - Co-Founder, Metaweb Technologies, Inc.
 * Danny Glover - Actor, UNDP Goodwill Ambassador
 * Robert Ottenhoff - President & CEO, GuideStar
 * Rachel Payne - Head of Industry, Technology, Google
 * Howard Rosenfeld - Shei’rah Foundation, Business executive
 * Kim Spencer - Chief Content Officer, Link Media, Inc.
 * David Yarnold - President & CEO, National Audubon Society; Former Executive Editor, San Jose Mercury News

Contact
Link TV P.O. Box 2008 San Francisco, CA 94126 Web: http://www.linktv.org

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Deep Dish TV
 * Democracy Now!
 * Independent World Television
 * David Cox

External articles

 * Dean E. Murphy, "U.S. Satellite Channel Offers Unfiltered Views From the Middle East", New York Times, September 16, 2002.
 * Jamal Dajani interviewed by Foaad Khosmood, "Link TV", Znet, March 10, 2007.
 * Paul Wilner, "Broadcasting a Global Sampler", New York Times, January 13, 2008.

External resources

 * "Providing Global Perspectives to Americans", Rockefeller Brothers Fund, accessed June 2008.