The Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, or C-SPAN, is an American non-profit cable network which primarily covers proceedings and policy discussions within the U.S. government. It was founded in 1979 by journalist and cable executive Brian Lamb. With an audience of 100 million cable viewers, C-SPAN offers unedited "gavel-to-gavel" coverage of Congress, political rallies and conventions, speaking engagements with lawmakers and authors, and one-on-one interviews. In recent years, C-SPAN — through its sister channels C-SPAN 2 and C-SPAN 3, as well as its D.C.-area radio station — has expanded its programming to historical documentaries and coverage of Prime Minister's Question Time in the U.K. It is the only channel devoted to Political Programmes that is consistently politically non-aligned, and works very hard to keep it that way; unusually, every host (or moderator) of a C-SPAN program has never said their name on the air in order to keep the pure politics the only thing in focus.
Notable programs:
- Washington Journal: C-SPAN's morning news program.
- Book TV: A weekend programming block on C-SPAN 2 which deals with authors promoting non-fiction (usually political) books; interview programs in this block include After Words and In Depth.
- Newsmakers: A Sunday morning political chat show.
- Q&A: A Sunday evening interview program hosted by Brian Lamb.
- The Communicators: A weekend show focusing on politicians, journalists, and businesspeople involved in the media.
