Direct broadcasting satellites offer the potential of transmitting directly to home television receivers over vast geographical areas. Efforts to create a legal regime to govern this technology were undertaken in the United Nations as early as 1972. A major obstacle to international agreement has been the question of prior consent, i.e. whether international law requires a broadcasting state to obtain the consent of a receiving state prior to transmission. Some states consider a rule of prior consent to be repugnant to the principle of freedom of information. Other states have generally viewed prior consent as an extension of a state''s sovereign right to regulate information receivable on its territory.

Prior Consent to International Direct Satellite Broadcasting examines the standing of prior consent under the principles of state sovereignty and freedom of information on the basis of international law doctrine, state practice, the law of outer space and human rights law.