ABSTRACT
Broadcasting as we know it will go through a transition from the current limited-area terrestrial systems to multichannel, worldwide, satellite-to-cable retrieval systems. In the early 1960s, when communications satellites became possible, practitioners and policy-makers were already promoting the concept of worldwide communications systems. Through the 1970s and 1980s numerous individuals, and formal and informal associations, in many parts of the world, pushed for implementation of global television. In general, telecommunications practitioners agree that there is a new world market developing, in which a greater demand for programming will create new alliances—“partners,” as most put it—internationally and regionally, to produce and provide programming that one producer/distributor or one station or system alone cannot do as effectively or economically. The political and social implications of telecommunications, in relation to reflecting and affecting democratic movements, are significant in terms of changing systems and system changes.
