C21Media reports that the BBC is launching in the New York cable market next month to combat a fictional, yet very marketing-friendly for the BBC's purposes, void in international news:
The paucity of international news on the US rolling news services is a well documented fact and the director of the BBC Global News Division, Richard Sambrook, hopes the new rolling channel will appeal to all those Americans who are forced online to find news from overseas.
“Studies show us that there’s a huge increase in US audience demand for international news, but domestic US networks seem to be focusing on fewer and fewer international stories," he said.
The BBC’s substantial international newsgathering operation, which includes 250 foreign correspondents and over 50 newsgathering bureaux, "means we’re able to bring audiences breaking news stories from anywhere in the world within minutes," Sambrook added.
The BBC is also plugging its channel's impartiality, perhaps harking back to criticism of cable channels like Fox News, which was accused by the BBC's then director-general Greg Dyke of "gung-ho patriotism" of its coverage of the Iraq War.
Let me get this straight: "impartiality" = "anti-FNC"? If the BBC's US broadcasts make as much sense as its executives and its media apologists, the BBC might want to schedule its retirement party now.
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