BBC World launching in U.S. with dedicated newscast

NEW YORK -- The 24-hour BBC World news channel broke into the U.S. market on Thursday and is soon launching a one-hour morning newscast available to a wider audience that is being done with Americans in mind.

The "World News Today" newscast will be broadcast live from London at 6 a.m. to compete with morning news programs in the United States., and will be simulcast on BBC America. That channel reaches nearly half of the 110 million U.S. homes with television.

BBC World, which is available in some 279 million homes worldwide, has barely a toe dipped into the United States -- only two million subscribers to Cablevision in the New York City area on opening day. The network is working to strike agreements with other cable and satellite operators, said Jeremy Hillman, the British Broadcasting Corp.'s New York bureau chief.

Still, that's two million more than Al-Jazeera International, another news network with an international bent, that was hoping to be operating by now but has put off its launch until the fall.

BBC World executives say they're sensing a hunger in the United States for more international news. An evening BBC newscast that is shown on many PBS stations is growing in viewership, and half of the hits to the BBC's news Web site come from the United States, Hillman said.

"World News Today" begins broadcasting from London on July 3. It will be seen throughout the world, but its timing and quick pace is being done specifically with Americans in mind, said George Alagiah, the telecast's anchor.

"What we're not setting out to do is carve a niche that reflects America back to Americans," Alagiah said. "What we're trying to do is reflect the world back to Americans."

It will be a serious newscast that stresses the BBC's reputation for impartiality, although "sometimes being impartial means working hard and going out and getting the truth," he said.

The broadcast will stand in contrast to American network morning shows, where the balance is tipping more toward entertainment, he said. The BBC also has an advantage over CNN since it has about three times as many journalists stationed outside of the U.S., Hillman said.

BBC World has been operating as a news channel since 1995. Its entry into the United States has been foiled by the same problems affecting startup channels here: a limited capacity for new networks on cable systems.

"We would have liked to have been here earlier," Hillman said. "We're pleased to be here now."

The BBC has also reached an agreement with ABC News to make some of its material available on ABC's Web site, he said.

Hillman said he doesn't feel threatened by Al-Jazeera International, which has hired a handful of well-known journalists like David Frost and Dave Marash of "Nightline."

"We think they're quite likely to do certain things well," he said. "But we're struggling to see exactly what the market is going to be."