Owned by KCETLink Website linktv.org KRCB (Cotati, California) Channel 22.1 (1-5 AM) | Country United States KCET (Los Angeles) Channel 28.2 Founded 1999 | |
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Slogan Television without Borders Headquarters San Francisco, California, United States Motto Television without Borders TV shows Earth Focus, Mosaic: World News fro, Global Spirit, Latin Pulse, Cinemondo Profiles | ||
Link TV, original WorldLink TV, is a non-commercial liberal / progressive American satellite television network providing what it describes as "diverse perspectives on world and national issues." It is carried nationally on DirecTV (ch. 375) and Dish Network (ch. 9410). It is broadcast over the air in the Los Angeles area on the 28.2 subchannel of KCET. Link TV was launched as a daily, 24-hour non-commercial network in 1999. It receives no money from the satellite providers, but relies instead on contributions from viewers and foundations.
Contents
Link TV broadcasts a mix of documentaries, global and national news, music of diverse cultures, and programs promoting citizen action. The network also airs English language news from Deutsche Welle, NHK and France 24, as well as various documentaries and world music videos. Select Link TV programs are streamed on the Internet, via the channel's website at www.linktv.org.
The network also produced Mosaic: World News from the Middle East, a program of translated news reports from the Middle East.
Link TV previously carried programming from Al Jazeera English, but the programming was discontinued as part of Al Jazeera's entry into the U.S. market with Al Jazeera America. Al Jazeera English's news programming was replaced by that of France 24.
History
Direct satellite broadcaster were mandated to set aside 4% of its channel space for noncommercial educational and informational programming. ITVS, Internews Network and Internews Interactive joined in forming Link Media Inc. to program a channel, WorldLink TV, for this mandate. WorldLink TV was one of the nine channels select to meet the mandate for DirecTV.
In October 2012, Link TV announced that it was merging with KCET, an independent public television station in Los Angeles, to form a new nonprofit entity, to be called KCETLink. The new entity is headquartered at KCET's Burbank facilities.
Production and projects
In 2010, Link TV announced the launch of ViewChange.org, an online video platform funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that aims to raise awareness of global development issues. It applies Semantic Web technology to video, in order to automatically create links to related content from other online sources.
In conjunction with the New York City Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, LinkTV broadcast a "Youth Producing Change" program which showcases the works of youth from all over the world. They also support efforts to fund groups such as imMEDIAte Justice Productions which help youth create their own film works.
Production facilities for Link TV are in San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Burbank, California.