The Channel | 2002 | June

10 / 22

the channel | 11
Global Brief
The latest news from the international broadcasting industry
BBC World Service and its paymaster
A recent leading article in the British newspaper The Guardian urged the British
Government not to divert cash away from the BBC World Service towards
domestic targets. The paper commented: “An interdependent world needs an
unbiased source of news. This has become more apparent since September 11.
That millions tune in, or increasingly log on, to find out what is happening both
at home and abroad is a reflection of the World Service’s success in trading a
precious commodity: trust. “
To keep winning more territory, the Guardian wrote, the BBC needs more cash.
FMmust be expanded as short wave gradually diminishes, and there is competition
from the Voice of America’s Radio Sawa, beaming to the Middle East, and the
resurgent al-Jazeera.
That one of the most successful global media brands can be government-funded
and not government-influenced, says the Guardian, should be celebrated. “It
would be a folly not to fund properly a service so well received by the rest of the
world” the paper concluded.
Swiss sponsor weather
BBC World, the BBC’s 24-hour international news and information television
channel, has signed an advertising deal with SWISS/Crossair, the new airline
launched in March this year. The SWISS/Crossair advertising campaign will
harness peak viewing times for BBCWorld across all regions including weekday
breakfast times in each time zone. In addition, BBCWorld will be using specially
created sponsorship billboards to associate peak time Weather bulletins with the
new Swiss/Crossair service around the world.
BBC World Weather is part of the channel’s news and programme mix and
presented every hour by professional broadcast meteorologists from the UKMet
office based at London’s BBCWeather Centre. BBCWorld offers daily city and
five-day weather forecasts covering every region of the globe for the worldwide
audience.
BBC World buys Japanese broadcast company
BBCWorld, the BBC’s 24-hour international news and information channel, has
announced the purchase of broadcast company Satellite News Corporation in
Japan
BBC World has been a shareholder,
together with ITX (formerly Nissho
Iwai), of the Satellite News Corporation
(SNC) since 1994. SNC is responsible
for the marketing and distribution of
BBC World throughout Japan. BBC
World, under the umbrella of its parent
company, BBC Worldwide, now
becomes the sole shareholder of the
company, making the channel the first foreign company registered to broadcast
in Japan.
BBC World today also announces a considerable increase in its Japanese
translation service to nearly 90 hours a week. BBC World news in Japanese is
translated live and uses more than one voice, unlike many other bilingual
transmissions in Japan which are delayed by several hours and use a single voice
for all interventions. The total number of translated hours comprises both live
news and pre-recorded Japanese versions of BBCWorld’s current affairs, lifestyle
and documentary programming.
New York Times Digital and international
radio broadcaster BBC World Service have
announced that the website
will incorporate links to BBC World Service
English audio content. In what is
understood to be the first agreement of
its kind between the BBC World Service
and a US newspaper website, links to global
news programmes and hourly news
bulletins from the BBC are to be showcased
on the international section of
Users will be able to access three BBC
programmes: World Update, a daily news
programme for US listeners on world
affairs; PRI’s The World, a co-production
of BBC, Public Radio International and
WGBH Boston; and World Service Bulletins,
which provide up-to-the-minute news in a
short, five-minute format.
Both World Update and The World are one
hour and are syndicated to US public radio
stations by Public Radio International.
Radio Austria International, Radio
Slovakia International, Radio Budapest,
together with AIB broadcaster members
Radio Prague and Radio Polonia have
launched a new co-production called
Insight Central Europe. The aim is to
provide coverage of the political, economic
and cultural changes occurring, as Central
European aspirants move towards joining
the European Union.
The weekly programme will be broadcast
on each station on either Saturday or
Sunday. According to Michael Kerbler,
Acting Director and Chief Editor of Radio
Austria International, “the aim of the
project must be to reach not only the
citizens from the candidate countries, but
also an audience in the states which are
already EU members to inform them of the
problems and advantages of EU
enlargement.”
The project is being coordinated by Radio
Austria International, and the programme
can be heard on short wave and online.
(BBC Monitoring)
European public service broadcasters are
facing turbulent times. In Ireland, RTE has
announced significant cash shortfalls,
while the head of RAI , Italy’s state broad-
caster, has also warned of severe financial
difficulties - RAI is Euro51.6m in the red.
Hundreds of workers of Portugal’s RTP state
television have demonstrated after the gov-
ernment announced it was winding-up the
six-channel broadcaster to replace it with
a new single-channel public service TV, Por-
tuguese radio reported.
(BBC Monitoring)