March 19, 1979 - The United States House of Representatives goes live on television for the first time in history. Footage from the House floor aired on a network created by a consortium of American cable companies. The first member of Congress to speak?
Al Gore (Sorry, only seems to be available on Real Player. Embedded video, in case weird link fails).
2009 marks the
30th anniversary of
C-SPAN. Since 1979, C-SPAN has broadcast over 19,000 hours of Congressional Committee hearings,
26,000 hours of U.S. House debate. A
2004 viewership survey estimated 42 percent of cable/satellite viewers, across various demographics, watched C-SPAN at least once or twice per week.
(Report overview - PDF) In 2006, a Pew report put the number at
59 million "regular" or "sometimes" viewers.
(Full report - PDF)
C-SPAN was founded by
Brian P. Lamb, a naval veteran who was a
social aide to Lyndon Johnson and worked for Richard Nixon. In 1986, the U.S. Senate joined the live TV fray when
C-SPAN2 began broadcasting. C-SPAN3 began offering further public affairs programming in 1997. None of non-profit C-SPAN networks
receive government funding of any kind.
The C-SPAN of 2009 reaches
97 million households, a far cry from the 3.5 million households it reached on its inception. C-SPAN and its sister networks have
quietly contributed to the political discourse through it's coverage of the House, its
advocacy for cameras in the courts, and its many series, such as
Book TV and
Washington Journal. Much of their video material is available on the web,
archived, or
streaming. In February 2009 the network released its
Second Historians Presidential Leadership Survey, which garnered
some noise in the media. There is also evidence that C-SPAN's viewers are
more active citizens than their non-C-SPAN viewing neighbors. Although,
the network and
its programming have sometimes been criticized for conservative bias.
Happy late birthday to C-SPAN!
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posted by wcfields at 6:54 PM on March 23