Re: [Swprograms] BBC World in USA
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Re: [Swprograms] BBC World in USA

The reason for that is pretty easy to see. Why would Big Cable (owner of CNN) and News Corp. (owner of Fox News and DirecTV) invite a potential major competitor onto their systems? But the BBC wasn't born yesterday. They got BBC America onto many cable systems and satellite subscription services when it was totally an entertainment service and didn't have even one newscast on that network. They made a concerted effort to get BBC World on those systems and got rejected. So, now the Beeb is ratcheting up the news content on BBC America--three hours each weekday morning, a one-hour major weeknight newscast repeated three hours later, and a weekly version of Newsnight, the cutting edge news investigation program that runs nightly on BBC2.
Of course, the behavior of our highly ownership concentrated media is cause for great concern. But since we're in an age when corporate interests reign supreme and are allowed to run roughshod over Constitutional rights, Congress and the FCC seem not inclined to address the situation at present. 

John Figliozzi

On Jul 7, 2008, at 9:58 AM, Sandy Finlayson wrote:
I am a DirecTV subscriber and here in the Philadelphia area we actually 
get three PBS stations two from Pennsylvania and one from New Jersey.


The NJ station takes a 7 PM broadcast of BBC News and most nights the
local Philadelphia station takes an 11 PM broadcast.  I'm pretty sure
that most nights these broadcasts are different.

My frustration is that we can't get BBC World here.  Verizon's Fios
service has it but neither Comcast Cable nor the two satellite providers 
carry it.  I think the US is one of the few places in the world where
BBC World isn't available.

Sandy


--------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Sandy Finlayson
Philadelphia, PA



-----Original Message-----
From: swprograms-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:swprograms-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Richard Cuff
Sent: Sunday, July 06, 2008 2:50 PM
To: josephbuch@xxxxxxxxx; Shortwave programming discussion
Subject: Re: [Swprograms] BBC World in USA

I wouldn't be surprised if MPT and WETA both get the OK -- the nearest
transmitter sites are Annapolis (22) and Frederick (62).

I am not sure if DC cable systems get both services but I would
suspect so.  When I lived in Baltimore County Comcast included both
WETA and MPT.

My guess is that the BBC would require the two services to air BBC
World newscasts at different times to afford multiple viewing
opportunities.

I suspect many cable systems bring in multiple PBS signals -- after a
"gentleman's agreement" that was in place for many years, whereby
Lehigh Valley cable systems did not carry WHYY, Philadelphia's PBS
station, nowadays both WLVT and WHYY are available to subscribers of
the two main CATV services in the area.

Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA  USA
On Sun, Jul 6, 2008 at 12:48 PM, Joe Buch <josephbuch@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: 

In the Washington, DC market the program airs on several stations now
plus coverage on most cable systems from Maryland Public TV. It will be interesting to see if WETA can still take the program if Maryland Public TV wants it. MPT has state-wide coverage of Maryland from the Delmarva 
peninsula to the western panhandle.  Of course WETA covers the opinion
formers the BBC is most interested in reaching.


I think Washington is a separate metropolitan statistical area from
Baltimore, but the entire eastern part of DC is bordered by Maryland and 
nicely served by MPT as is the rest of the state.  It will be
interesting to see how this possible conflict resolves itself.



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