Re: Next steps on draft-zigmond-tv-url-02
From: dean blackketter (dean@corp.webtv.net)
Date: Tue, Aug 31 1999
Message-Id: <4.2.0.58.19990831102857.01bd72b0@po-sw2.artemis.com>
Date: Tue, 31 Aug 1999 10:38:33 -0700
To: "Michael A. Dolan" <miked@tbt.com>, www-tv@w3.org (WWW TV List)
From: dean blackketter <dean@corp.webtv.net>
Subject: Re: Next steps on draft-zigmond-tv-url-02
At 07:25 AM 8/31/99 -0700, Michael A. Dolan wrote:
> > tv:kqed (ITU standard international callsign)
> >
> >I'd like to lose this too; it's an americanism, and confuses the issues, I
> >think. Is there a station with callsign FIRM?
>
>Huh? ITU is an international organization. The above callsign is
>globally unique and has nothing to do with the US (except that the
>"k" prefix belongs to the US). Of all the technical issues with tv:,
>this is not one.
For clarification, the ITU only specifies the first three characters in US
call signs.
If I remember correctly, the US has KAA through KZZ, NAA through NZZ, and
WAA through WZZ. Countries are allowed to extend these call signs (thereby
extending the space), and so in the US we have mostly 4 letter FCC assigned
call signs, like KQED and WNBC. (I believe, also, that these are more
formally known as KQED-TV and WNBC-TV to distinguish them from their radio
counterparts.)
Interestingly, according to the ITU, the call letters BBC is actually the
property of The People's Republic of China, who control BAA through BZZ.
-dean