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Broadcast license
 
 
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A broadcast license is a specific type of spectrum licence
Frequency allocation

The radio frequency electromagnetic spectrum is an aspect of the physical world which, like land, water, and air, is subject to usage limitations. Use of radio frequency bands of the electromagnetic spectrum is regulated by governments in most countries, in a Spectrum management process known as frequency allocation or spectrum allocation...
 that grants the licensee
Licensee

A licensee is a term used in the law of torts to describe a person who is on the property of another, despite the fact that the property is not open to the general public, because the owner of the property has allowed the licensee to enter....
 the privilege to use a portion of the radio frequency
Radio frequency

Radio frequency is a frequency or rate of oscillation within the range of about 3 Hz to 300 GHz. This range corresponds to frequency of alternating current electrical signals used to produce and detect radio waves....
 spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting
Broadcasting

Broadcasting is distribution of Sound and/or video Signalling s which transmit programs to an audience. The audience may be the general public or a relatively large sub-audience, such as children or young adults....
 purposes.

Licensing is typically performed by government agencies
Government agency

A government agency is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, such as an intelligence agency....
, providing a mechanism both for managing the limited resource of radio frequency spectrum and for implementing prevailing public policy
Public policy

Public policy can be generally defined as the course of action or inaction taken by government entities with regard to a particular issue or set of issues....
, such as policies regarding concentration of media ownership
Concentration of media ownership

Concentration of media ownership is a commonly used term that refers to the majority of the media outlets being owned by a small number of Conglomerate s and corporations — especially by those who view such consolidation as detrimental, dangerous, or otherwise problematic — to characterize ownership structure of mass media indust...
.

Management of technical specifications, such as those implemented in broadcast television systems, is normally undertaken as a part of broadcast licensing in each country.






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A broadcast license is a specific type of spectrum licence
Frequency allocation

The radio frequency electromagnetic spectrum is an aspect of the physical world which, like land, water, and air, is subject to usage limitations. Use of radio frequency bands of the electromagnetic spectrum is regulated by governments in most countries, in a Spectrum management process known as frequency allocation or spectrum allocation...
 that grants the licensee
Licensee

A licensee is a term used in the law of torts to describe a person who is on the property of another, despite the fact that the property is not open to the general public, because the owner of the property has allowed the licensee to enter....
 the privilege to use a portion of the radio frequency
Radio frequency

Radio frequency is a frequency or rate of oscillation within the range of about 3 Hz to 300 GHz. This range corresponds to frequency of alternating current electrical signals used to produce and detect radio waves....
 spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting
Broadcasting

Broadcasting is distribution of Sound and/or video Signalling s which transmit programs to an audience. The audience may be the general public or a relatively large sub-audience, such as children or young adults....
 purposes.

Licensing is typically performed by government agencies
Government agency

A government agency is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, such as an intelligence agency....
, providing a mechanism both for managing the limited resource of radio frequency spectrum and for implementing prevailing public policy
Public policy

Public policy can be generally defined as the course of action or inaction taken by government entities with regard to a particular issue or set of issues....
, such as policies regarding concentration of media ownership
Concentration of media ownership

Concentration of media ownership is a commonly used term that refers to the majority of the media outlets being owned by a small number of Conglomerate s and corporations — especially by those who view such consolidation as detrimental, dangerous, or otherwise problematic — to characterize ownership structure of mass media indust...
.

Management of technical specifications, such as those implemented in broadcast television systems, is normally undertaken as a part of broadcast licensing in each country. Various radio bands carry different radio signals, such as video
Video

Video is the technology of electronics Videography, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing Scene in motion....
 and audio
Sound recording and reproduction

Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical or mechanics inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects....
, digital
Digital signal

The term digital signal is used to refer to more than one concept. It can refer to discrete-time signals that have a discrete number of levels, for example a Sampling_ and quantification analog signal, or to the continuous-time waveform signals in a digital system, representing a bit-stream....
 and analog
Analog signal

An analog or analogue signal is any continuous function Signal for which the time varying feature of the signal is a representation of some other time varying quantity, i.e analogous to another time varying signal....
, narrowband
Narrowband

Narrowband refers to a situation in radio communications where the Bandwidth of the message does not significantly exceed the channel's coherence bandwidth....
 and broadband
Broadband

The term broadband can have different meanings in different contexts. The term's meaning has undergone substantial shifts....
, and different types of content
Content (media and publishing)

In media production and publishing, content is information and experiences that may provide value for an end-user/audience in specific contexts....
, and are therefore licensed differently.

Licensing is also different for public radio and public television, and for community radio
Community radio

Community radio is a type of radio service that caters to the interests of a certain area, broadcasting material that is popular to a local audience but is overlooked by more powerful broadcast groups....
 and community television
Community television

Australia's Community Television is a form of Citizen media much like Public Access Television in the United States and the Community channel in Canada....
, as compared to commercial applicants and licensees.

Economics

Originally, broadcast licences were issued for only a nominal payment, but work by economist Ronald Coase
Ronald Coase

Ronald Harry Coase is a United Kingdom economist and the Clifton R. Musser Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Chicago Law School....
 developed an economic theory that broadcast licences in a spectrum that was limited had high economic value, which could and should be paid for on the open market
Open market

In economics, the open market is the term used to refer to the environment in which Bond are bought and sold.To intervene in the "business cycle", a central bank may choose to go into the open market and buy or sell government bonds, which is known as open market operations to increase reserves....
. Increasingly, spectrum licences are offered via spectrum auction
Spectrum auction

A spectrum auction is a process whereby a government uses an auction system to sell the rights to transmit signals over specific Electromagnetic spectrum....
s, however this fails to consider non-commercial educational
Non-commercial educational

The term non-commercial educational applies to a radio station or TV station that does not accept on air advertisements , as defined in the United States by the Federal Communications Commission....
 users, which are shut out of the process unless steps to ensure their fair consideration are taken.

The sale of licenses, with the profits going to the seller instead of the licensor, also implies some sort of ownership of the airwaves by the licensees — when in fact the spectrum, like light
Light

Light, or visible light, is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength that is Visible spectrum to the human eye , or up to 380?750 nm. In the broader field of physics, light is sometimes used to refer to electromagnetic radiation of all wavelengths, whether visible or not....
, air
AIR

Air is the part of Earth's atmosphere that humans breath and as such Air .Air may also refer to:...
, and water
Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
, are inherently public property
Public property

Public property is property which is jointly owned by a whole community of individuals or by a government, as opposed to private property, which is owned exclusively by one individual or two or more individuals jointly that do not constitute the whole community....
 as a matter of the laws of physics, and broadcasters are only paying to rent it.

Technical specifications

The broadcast license typically specifies the following information at minimum:
  • exact latitude
    Latitude

    Latitude, usually denoted symbolically by the Greek letter phi gives the location of a place on Earth north or south of the equator. Lines of Latitude are the horizontal lines shown running east-to-west on maps ....
     and longitude
    Longitude

    Longitude , symbolized by the Greek character lambda , is the geographic coordinate most commonly used in cartography and global navigation for east-west measurement....
  • carrier
    Carrier wave

    In telecommunications, a carrier wave, or carrier is a waveform that is Modulation with an signal for the purpose of conveying information....
     frequency
    Frequency

    Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency....
     and bandwidth
  • modulation
    Modulation

    In telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying a Periodic function waveform, i.e. a tone, in order to use that signal to convey a message, in a similar fashion as a musician may modulate the tone from a musical instrument by varying its volume, timing and Pitch ....
     type[s]
  • effective radiated power
    Effective radiated power

    In radio telecommunications, effective radiated power or equivalent radiated power is a standardized theoretical measurement of Radio frequency energy using the non-International System of Units unit Decibel, and is determined by subtracting system losses and adding system gains....
  • height above average terrain
    Height above average terrain

    Height above average terrain is used extensively in Frequency Modulation radio and television, as it is actually much more important than effective radiated power in determining the range of broadcasts ....
  • directional antenna
    Directional antenna

    A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna which radiates greater power in one or more directions allowing for increased performance on transmit and receive and reduced interference from unwanted sources....
     radiation pattern
    Radiation pattern

    In the field of Antenna design the term 'radiation pattern' most commonly refers to the directional dependence of radiation from the antenna or other source ....


Additionally, they often specify the following:
  • operating hours for mediumwave
    Mediumwave

    Medium Wave is a part of the Medium frequency radio band used mainly for AM broadcasting. Some experiments and trials are planned or under way for a digital modulation such as Digital Radio Mondiale ....
     and shortwave
    Shortwave

    Shortwave radio operates in the frequency range of 3,000 kHz to 30,000 kHz . In radio, short wavelength corresponds to high frequency given the inverse relationship between frequency and wavelength, thus, ?shortwave radio? is denominated so, because its wavelengths are shorter than the long wave-lengths used in early radio communications; m...
  • transmitter power output
    Transmitter power output

    In radio transmission, transmitter power output is the actual amount of power of radio frequency energy that a transmitter produces at its output....
  • broadcast auxiliary service
    Broadcast auxiliary service

    A broadcast auxiliary service or BAS is any radio frequency system used by a radio station or TV station, which is not part of its direct Broadcasting to listeners or viewers....
    s
  • radio antenna brand and model
  • backup
    Backup

    In information technology, backup refers to making copies of data so that these additional copies may be used to restore the original after a data loss event....
     facilities
  • additional service authorizations (subcarrier
    Subcarrier

    A subcarrier is a separate analog or digital signal carried on a main radio transmission , which carries extra information such as voice or data....
    s, digital radio
    Digital radio

    Digital radio describes radio technologies which carry information as a digital signal, by means of a digital modulation method. The most common meaning is digital audio broadcasting technologies, but the topic may also cover TV broadcasting as well as many two-way digital wireless communication technologies....
    )


Some countries also specify radio format
Radio format

A radio format or programming format describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. Radio formats are frequently employed as a marketing tool, and constantly evolve....
 or genre
Genre

A genre is a loose set of criteria for a category of composition; the term is often used to categorize literature and speech, but is also used for any other Art#Art forms or utterance....
 of television programming, in order to ensure diversity.

External links


Regulators


  • Australian Communications and Media Authority
    Australian Communications and Media Authority

    Australian Communications and Media Authority is an Government of Australia agency whose main roles are to regulate broadcasting, radiocommunications and telecommunications, and to represent Australian interests in international communications matters....
     
  • Radio Spectrum Management New Zealand
    New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development

    The Ministry of Economic Development in New Zealand has an overarching goal of promoting the economic development of Economy of New Zealand. However, it deals with policy in a wide range of different areas such as: energy, communications and the radio spectrum, industry and regional development, intellectual property, consumer issues, touri...
     
  • Ofcom
    Ofcom

    The Office of Communications or, as it is more often known, Ofcom, is the independent regulator and competition authority for the communication industries in the United Kingdom....
     United Kingdom
  • Federal Communications Commission
    Federal Communications Commission

    The Federal Communications Commission is an Independent agencies of the United States government, created, directed, and empowered by United States Congress statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President of the United States....
     United States