HFCC - International Broadcasting Delivery

Welcome to the HFCC Homepage

The HFCC is a non-governmental, non-profit association, and a sector member of the International Telecommunication Union in Geneva in the category of international and regional organisations. It manages, and co-ordinates global databases of international shortwave broadcasting in keeping with International Radio Regulations of the ITU.

Shortwave radio was by far the most widely used means of distribution of international broadcasting only a couple of decades ago. In contrast with the rest of the radio spectrum, no acceptable method of assigning frequencies has ever been developed since the discovery of shortwave propagation in the 1920s. The unacceptable level of mutual interference among stations, and an improved climate after the end of the Cold War led to the development of global co-ordination.

Traditional delivery of international broadcasting has been changing rapidly, with the advent of digital technologies and the Internet - this is widely considered to be the future of media content distribution. At the same time there are compelling reasons to believe that broadcasting from terrestrial transmitters will remain an important guarantor of free and universal access to radio and TV programmes, especially during specific context situations of listeners and consumers. Unfortunately, there has never been an in-depth debate on this subject among the providers of international broadcasting.

The HFCC is fully committed to the development of a multi-platform system of distribution in international broadcasting, where the individual platforms do not exclude, but complement each other. It is evident that consumers should be offered the full range of all existing technologies and they should be free to select the best one depending on their individual circumstances. Read more.

Usually there is no problem in obtaining technical and programme information about local broadcasting, but it is more difficult to get complete and accurate schedule data of world-wide shortwave transmissions. The HFCC global database is exceptional in that it is updated on-line. Individual schedules are sorted either by Broadcaster or by Frequency Management Organisation. These schedules are now freely available on this website.