WCSP-FM is broadcast on FM radio in Washington, D.C., and is available throughout the U.S. on SiriusXM, via Internet streaming, and globally through iOS and Android apps.

On February 1, 1982, C-SPAN launched its own transponder and expanded programming to 16 hours a day; the arrangement with the USA Network was discontinued two months later.

[19] Viewers protested these decisions, and some communities, such as Eugene, Oregon and Alexandria, Virginia, were successful in restoring C-SPAN availability.

[3] C-SPAN3 is the successor of a digital channel called C-SPAN Extra, which was launched in the Washington, D.C., area in 1997, and televised live and recorded political events on weekdays.

[24] Lamb semi-retired in March 2012 and gave executive control of the network to his two lieutenants, Rob Kennedy and Susan Swain.

The Conservative Opportunity Society, led by Newt Gingrich, took advantage of this by delivering speeches to an empty chamber, at times referring to Democrats who were not actually there.

Speaker Tip O'Neill, annoyed by the speeches, ordered the camera to display a wide-shot of the empty chamber without alerting the Republicans.

[31] They asked permission to pan for wide reaction shots, and install cameras for House-Senate conference committees and off-floor interviews, among other things.

[35][36] These live streams violated House rules on use of personal devices on the floor, which C-SPAN noted through on-air disclaimers.

[42][16] When the House or Senate are not in session, C-SPAN channels broadcast other public affairs programming and recordings of previous events.

[43][44] The networks cover U.S. political campaigns, including the Republican, Democratic, and Libertarian presidential nominating conventions in their entirety.

[59][60] During early 2011, C-SPAN carried broadcasts by Al Jazeera to cover the events in Egypt, Tunisia, and other Arab nations.

[62] With its public affairs programming, C-SPAN intends to offer different viewpoints by allowing time for multiple opinions to be discussed on a given topic.

[65] The network strives for neutrality and a lack of bias; in all programming when on-camera hosts are present their role is simply to facilitate and explain proceedings to the viewer.

[17] Washington Journal premiered on January 4, 1995, and has been broadcast every morning since then, with guests including elected officials, government administrators, and journalists.

[66] The weekday programming on C-SPAN3 (from the morning — anywhere from 6 to 8:30 a.m. — to 8 p.m. Eastern Time) features uninterrupted live public affairs events, in particular political events from Washington, D.C.[22] Each weekend since January 8, 2011, the network has broadcast 48 hours of programming dedicated to the history of the United States, under the umbrella title American History TV.

[77] In 2009, C-SPAN3 aired an eight-installment series of interviews from the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas, which featured historian Richard Norton Smith and Vice President Walter Mondale, among other interviewees.

[80] The year-long series American Presidents: Life Portraits, produced to commemorate the 20th anniversary of C-SPAN, won a Peabody Award.

In 2005, C-SPAN hosted a 25-hour "call-in marathon" and essay contest, the winner of which was invited to co-host an hour of the broadcast, to commemorate 25 years of taking viewer telephone calls.

[88] Unveiled in August 2007,[17] the C-SPAN Video Library contains all of the network's programming since 1987, totaling more than 160,000 hours at its completion of digitization and public debut in March 2010.

[89][90] Older C-SPAN programming continues to be added to the library, dating back to the beginning of the network in 1979,[25] and some limited earlier footage from the National Archives, such as film clips of Richard Nixon's 1972 trip to China, is available as well.

[91] Most of the recordings before 1987 (when the C-SPAN Archive was established) were not saved, except for approximately 10,000 hours of video which are slated to be made available online.

[94] It won a Peabody Award in 2010 "for creating an enduring archive of the history of American policymaking, and for providing it as a free, user-friendly public service.

[96] C-SPAN also engaged in actions to stop parties from making unauthorized uses of its content online, including its video of House and Senate proceedings.

Most notably, in May 2006, C-SPAN requested the removal of Stephen Colbert's performance at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner from YouTube.

[99] On March 7, 2007, C-SPAN liberalized its copyright policy for current, future, and past coverage of any official events sponsored by Congress and any federal agency and now allows for attributed non-commercial copying, sharing, and posting of C-SPAN video on the Internet,[100][101] excluding re-syndication of live video streams.

[113] As a non-commercial public service, C-SPAN receives most of its funding from subscriber fees charged to cable and direct-broadcast satellite (DBS) operators.

[48] However, there have been a number of surveys providing estimates: C-SPAN's public service nature has been praised as an enduring contribution to national knowledge.

[25][89] Despite its stated commitment to providing politically balanced programming, C-SPAN and its shows such as Washington Journal, Booknotes, Q & A, and After Words have been accused by some liberal organizations of having a conservative bias.

[147][148][149] Calls have ranged from crude jokes about Howard Stern and Bababooey to racist tirades against Martin Luther King Jr and questions regarding the size of Mitt Romney's penis.