In a sign of progress for its push to get on cable and satellite systems across the United States, the BBC World News channel is now available in about 10 million homes that subscribe to Time Warner Cable.
The rollout in Time Warner Cable markets was announced this month and was completed Thursday, according to representatives of the BBC and the cable company.
Last year, the BBC began aggressively to seek American distribution for its international news channel, which it says is available full time in more than 200 million homes worldwide. Relatively few were in the United States, however, at least until Comcast signed up late last year, increasing the channel’s reach to about 15 million.
Now, with the Time Warner Cable carriage deal, the channel is up to about 25 million homes, including much of New York City (where advertisers and reporters congregate) and Los Angeles.
“There is still some way to go before we can say we have reached everyone — but 2012 has been a year of significant breakthroughs for us in the U.S.,” the news organization noted earlier this month.
About 100 million homes in the United States have cable or satellite subscriptions. The deals with Comcast and Time Warner Cable are crucial because they are the two biggest cable providers in the country, and where they lead, others tend to follow. But it’s an uphill climb, nonetheless, since providers are generally reluctant to add new channels to their lineups. One of the BBC’s competitors, Al Jazeera English, has been on a similar campaign for cable carriage in the United States, with less to show for it.
In the United States, BBC World News seems to be positioning itself as an alternative to Fox News, MSNBC and CNN. “We are really pleased by the growing demand in the U.S. for a global news network which is both nonpartisan and nonsensational in approach,” Jim Egan, the chief operating officer of the BBC unit that is distributing the channel worldwide, said in a statement when the Time Warner Cable deal was announced.
Mr. Egan added: “BBC World News is about serious news; with on-the-ground reporting and analysis from different parts of the world and a mandate to inform and provide a balanced view. We know that audiences around the world value the channel’s distinctive worldview and we are pleased that more United States viewers now have access to it.”
Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/27/in-boost-to-u-s-plans-bbc-world-service-is-added-to-time-warner-cable/?partner=rss&emc=rss
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