The British are coming again, this time with cameras, microphones, and notebooks.
This invasion is of the journalistic kind as the British news media enter the American market or seek to raise their profile. The most recent example is the BBC World division of the BBC, which was to start a campaign on Thursday to introduce Americans to a 24-hour news network on cable television to compete against CNN and Fox News Channel.
The TV and print adverts are here.
“We hope very much this is the start of a series of deals,” said Richard Sambrook, chief executive at BBC World in London, who is working with Discovery Communications on American distribution for BBC World News.
The United States “is the only region in the world where we’re not available on a 24-hour basis,” Sambrook said.
The BBC news network is the third recent example of the British media aiming at Americans. In February, The Economist, the weekly newsmagazine published by Pearson, started testing a campaign in Baltimore to increase subscription and newsstand sales in the United States.
And The Times of London, owned by News Corp., announced last week that it would begin publishing a daily newspaper for American readers, starting Tuesday, with an initial print run of close to 10,000 copies to be distributed in New York and Washington.
“This has the feeling of Americans deciding they need something outside the system to get a perspective on what’s going on,” said Nick Shore, principal at Way Group in New York, a strategic consulting company. “It’s a global version of a second opinion.”
The interest in world news delivered from someplace outside the United States could be a reaction to “the Wal- Martization of America,” Shore said – that is, responding to perceptions of news that originates domestically is homogenized or corporatized.
Overdue.
This pleases me. A different POV is what the media and america needs.
I would watch the BBC over any other network news service.
Sweet! I loved BBC News 24 when I was over in London.
-A
But are we as americans to arrogant now to take a different POV seriously?
Can we look at ourselves with a open eye and get a better understanding as to how we are viewed to the rest of the world ?
#4, Perhaps but people are becomming discontent with the american bubble. The gov on the other hand may just try and block the bbc at the network level by labeling it as unpatriotic or whatever else they have in their slogan bag, may just tell us to go back to watching faux news.
Because, after all, that whole Al Jazerra World Service thing has gotten off the ground so well.
Look on the bright side: MSNBC won’t be in last place anymore.
Uh, James — the Aljazeera English service has started up — in March on 4 satellites. The plan is to center broadcasts from 4 points around the globe so there will be live anchors and control room staff within each 6-hour band. So far, it’s just test streams.
If you’re in a hurry, just send a note to the FCC to expedite availability in the US. 🙂
Looking at the Nielsen ratings, you’re absolutely correct; but, i wouldn’t buy stock on that basis. Nielsen Media Research reported that Fox News’ overall prime-time lineup dropped 17% last month compared with a year ago (MSNBC grew 16% during the same period, while CNN plummeted by 38%). Bill O’Reilly had his worst month in 5 years.
As a static number, Fox is the water buffalo in the room — as they say. I’d rather buy wolves.
Given who’s promoting the BBC package, I may have a chance, real soon now, to have it as an option. They even plan to be the first to do HiDef news 24/7. You can really see how shifty-eyed Bush gets.
As a British politics student who looks in on America, only for tech news though, I think it would be great for the “mainstream” to give you a different point of view, like the Israelis are wrong sometimes!
Sadly I think the pop culture-ized lot cannot stare the truth in the eye – It hurts!
Just make sure you ignore the political correspondent Nick Robinson, he’s in bed with the opposition party!
I like BBC news, they are usually credable on most issues. But they are agenda driven just like American networks are. It will be anti-war, pro-global warming , pro-politically correct, ethnic diversity special groups privledges, and left leaning. Guess it will fit right in here….oh…with British and occasional Scottish accents.
If you really want to know what Europeans think of us, you can save your cable money and watch MSNBC or any of the regular networks, without the accents.
If you want to see stories that NEVER make it to the news desk here in the states, it’s a great network to watch. And after awhile you will be able to take the political stuff with the same grain of salt you do for our home grown networks.
America is about the only country where there is any debate about whether global warming and climate change is for real. Everywhere else accepts that it is happening. Ever wondered why that is? Clue: oil companies.
So that’s maybe a reason why alternative voices such as the BBC are needed in the US.
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article The British are coming, the British are coming!, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.