Embley (left) hosts the evening’s earlier feeds of BBC World News from London; Savidge (right) anchors WNET/WLIW's Worldfocus from New York.
Choice expands, no fatality in world news duel so far
Three months after WNET/WLIW launched Worldfocus and KCET took over U.S. distribution of BBC World News from WLIW, many public TV stations have decided not to choose between the Brits and the Yanks. Instead, they’re airing both of the half-hour world newscasts, expanding the airtime devoted to news and public affairs.
“If you had told me that in eight weeks we’d be seen in all 30 of the top markets ... I would say, ‘That’s unbelievable,’” says Neal Shapiro, president of WNET and architect of Worldfocus.
BBC World News also airs in all of the top 30 markets—on primary stations in 28 of those areas, says Al Jerome, president of KCET.
Nearly 100 stations are carrying both programs on their primary (analog, for now) channels, but Worldfocus is more likely to be scheduled on digital multicast channels and on secondary stations.
The programs are tied in overall carriage — the number of households that can receive them — and also in the percentage of households that tune in, says Craig Reed of TRAC Media Services. The BBC’s program attracts just under 0.4 percent of homes, and Worldfocus is virtually the same, according to TRAC. The BBC program’s ratings have decreased only slightly since Worldfocus entered the program grid, and the BBC has picked up 22 stations that did not previously air the program, including 12 primary stations.
Worldfocus, which the New York stations are financing for the first year, is now courting underwriters and foundations. Despite the feeble economy, they’re close to landing the funding they need, Shapiro says.
This spring, the program will raise its hometown visibility when it moves to a new glass-walled studio at Lincoln Center, where people will be able to watch clips from the program on a giant, street-level video screen.
“We’re resolved to make this work,” Shapiro says. Heexpects to hear from several foundations soon and already received a matching grant he “just has to match.”
KCET, which is responsible for securing the BBC program’s underwriting, began fundraising in November and has landed a grant from the Freeman Foundation, one of three incumbent foundation funders for BBC World, Jerome says. The station is also talking with the other two incumbents, Newman’s Own Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation.
BBC World News had no corporate underwriters when KCET took over distribution, but the station is meeting with corporations and hopes to announce its first underwriter in the “near term,” Jerome says. By boosting underwriting, as well as primary station carriage, audience size and promotion for BBC World News, KCET wants to prove that public TV is a good partner for the long haul. Jerome is interested in distributing more BBC programs, such as an international business news program and Click, an international technology show.
Sharing early fringe
Most stations that carry the shows air them between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.; late-night and early morning slots are also popular. BBC World News is available in about 14 percent more of the country than Worldfocus, including analog and digital channels. The BBC program airs on more than 330 primary channels and nearly 300 more digital channels. Worldfocus airs on more than 150 primary analog channels and as many digital channels.
Throughout pubTV, the BBC program is aired more often — nearly twice as much as Worldfocus — but the WLIW/WNET program is seen in slightly larger markets, most notably New York.
Both programs’ ratings are comparable to those of others in those dayparts, says Reed. Kevin Harris, g.m. at WETA in Washington, D.C., says he doesn’t expect gangbuster ratings in the early evenings. With the programs airing back to back on WETA, beginning with Worldfocus at 5:30 p.m., they’re both drawing audiences as large as he’d expect for pure news shows, he says.
Originally, the new BBC/KCET contract stipulated that pubTV stations should air the program in early evening to avoid competing with the BBC World News America broadcast on the Beeb’s BBC America cable channel, but at stations’ request, KCET and the BBC expanded the window into late night and early morning. Still, Worldfocus is more likely to air in late evening.
The BBC newscast has changed in several other ways. It used to emanate from Washington, D.C., but now broadcasts from London. Stations can still choose from multiple feeds but are required to air the newscast within an hour and a half of the feed.
Early-evening (Eastern time) feeds are anchored by Mike Embley in London, with reports from Philippa Thomas in Washington. They replace Matt Frei, who was doubling as anchor for the news program on the Beeb’s cable channel, where he continues. In the early morning and late evening, George Alagiah and Jonathan Charles anchor the BBC’s newscast for American public TV.
KCET has helped promote and brand the program as “made for public TV” more conspicuously than before, says WETA’s Harris.
The new agreement with BBC stipulates that, in most cases, one station per market can air the program—not surprisingly, since KCET is an outspoken critic of nonexclusive licensing deals such as PBS’s.
Jerome says KCET offered BBC World News to the station in each market that carried the highest percentage of news and public affairs programs. Most of the time, this was the primary station, which could decide whether to keep exclusive rights. In Washington, WETA didn’t object to sharing the program with WHUT, which serves a primarily African-American audience.
The goal, says Jerome, was to create brand exclusivity for one station. He contends that station would do a better job of promoting BBC World News and bring in a bigger audience in order to help underwriting.
At KCET’s major local competitor, KOCE in Orange County, General Manager Mel Rogers says he’s happy to have Worldfocus to replace the BBC program, which is no longer available to KOCE. But he expects some other secondary stations miss having BBC in their lineup. “I think that there’s a mentality out there . . . that limiting audience access to public TV content is somehow better than expanding audience access,” he says.
“More access to more shows in more places” would better serve pubTV’s mission, Rogers says. “It’s really important to me . . . that we think broadly about service to the people and not be so parochial about ‘my station, my station.’”
That’s what prompted WNET/WLIW to get Worldfocus up and running so quickly without outside funding support, says Shapiro. Public TV needed an international news program available to every station without airtime restrictions, he says.
One more arrow
Worldfocus continues to build out its interactive, videocentric website and recently launched an area where viewers can upload their own videos. Shapiro says content is starting to come in from across the ocean.
The program also started a podcast, which he says has an “NPR-ish quality.” And execs are pursuing several more partnerships with international news organizations, particularly in South America.
KCET recently made a BBC News module available for station websites that includes a regularly updated one-minute video news summary, drawn from the BBC’s 24-hour feed. The module features print headlines, an audio update and a link to the popular Have Your Say website. Jerome says KCET and BBC will add social-networking elements.
Both Jerome and Shapiro say the two programs offer different perspectives. Jerome touts BBC World News’s coverage of the U.S. from an international perspective, while Shapiro points out how Worldfocus taps the perspectives of reporters from all over the world.
Will both survive to become public TV mainstays? Shapiro says g.m.’s tell him Worldfocus is “one more arrow in the quiver” when they’re promoting public TV’s public-affairs commitment. And he thinks viewers who were skeptical are warming up to the program. “People don’t like change anywhere — especially in public television,” he says.
Web page posted Dec. 30, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Current LLC
