The field of international telecommunications, especially that of direct broadcasting by satellite, has attracted increasing attention over the past decade. This aspect of communication technology has also become a part of the larger debate at the United Nations, Unesco, and the International Telecommunication Union concerning issues of access and participation of the Third World countries in the flow of news and information. Conventional wisdom does not seem to be adequate for understanding or coping with technological changes that have occurred in international communications during the last two decades. A theoretical task to comprehend and analyze the significance of satellite communications across national boundaries is an urgent one. Unless communications scholars begin to formulate innovative explanations for problems in international telecommunications, the resultant policies and regulations will be tenuous, tumultuous, and short-lived. The theories of Canadian economist-historian Harold Innis have great potential for communications policy making. His concepts of time and space, monopoly of knowledge, and dimensions of social structure and culture have specific relevance to the direct broadcast satellite, politico-economic, and national sovereignty issues that have been raised by advances in telecommunications. (FL)