tv-radio-media
IA TV News Archive
The Internet Archive's TV News collection makes US and international television news since 2009 searchable through closed-caption text. It is queried via the Internet Archive's keyless search API, which our site uses directly. Invaluable when you need to establish when and where something was said on television.
Why it’s useful & how it works
The Internet Archive's TV News collection is the definitive tool for establishing when something was said on television. It is fully searchable by keyword because closed-caption text has been indexed for every broadcast, so you can locate a specific phrase or name across years of US and international news programming. Echo queries the collection directly, and results link to the clip on archive.org where you can watch the relevant segment in context.
What’s inside
Over 9.5 million television news broadcasts spanning more than 6.6 million hours from more than 50 countries, with continuous US national coverage going back to 2009. The collection grows around the clock as new broadcasts are ingested.
API access
IA advancedsearch collection:tvnews
What we measured
Our own probes, not the archive’s own claims. Re-run periodically; every reading below is dated.
Reachability
- Direct request
- Responded HTTP 200 1.3 s
- Through a datacenter proxy
- Responded HTTP 200 1.1 s
- API, direct
- Responded HTTP 200 316 ms
- API, through a proxy
- Responded HTTP 200 1.1 s
Did a real search return anything?
Returned results · 9209 results for the sample query · median 815 ms · stable across runs
Sample query: Eco India : DW : February 3, 2026 2:30pm-3:01pm CET
Benchmark coverage
Found 5 of 5 test items (100%) in the Video / audio / music cluster. Median response 403 ms.
By how well known the item is: 1/1 well-known, 3/3 mid, 1/1 obscure .
One item it found: Studio B With Shepard Smith : FOXNEWS : March 14, 2011 3:00pm-4:00pm EDT
Reachability measured 2026-08-22. Search checked 2026-08-22. Benchmark run 2026-08-22.
Access
Programmatic API access (a key may be required, see the API tag).