Marking its first anniversary, BBC World News America broadcast from its new state-of-the-art set last night. The set features eight new plasma screens, seven with graphics of diverse landscapes of the U.S. and one for images and during guest interviews. The program, airing at 7 and 10pmET, is anchored by Matt Frei, with Katty Kay as Washington correspondent.

Attitude and an accent — that's what Rome Hartman says he wants to bring to convention coverage.

As EP of BBC World News America, the former CBS' Evening News EP is covering his first convention as an employee of the Beeb.

TVNewser talked to Hartman this morning outside the BBC News workspace about media bias, the upcoming Republican Convention, Katie Couric and more:

While the Olympic conflict puts both countries on the podium, the war between Russia and Georgia continues.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who made the media rounds on Friday as his country was heading towards war, appeared last night on BBC World News America.

Saakashvili was live from inside his office, where correspondent Nik Gowing conducted the interview at 3:00am local time.

As the war raged on outside, Saakashvili used a map of the country to point out exactly where the battle was taking place.

A network insider finds it noteworthy that when the first U.S. war crimes trial since WWII ended yesterday, none of the U.S. broadcast networks had a correspondent in Cuba to report on the conviction of Salim Hamdan. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reported the story for Nightly News but the story was produced from Washington.

Only BBC World News America had correspondent on the ground in Guantanamo Bay. Kim Ghattas reported live for World News America last night and remains on the story today awaiting the sentencing.

> Update: Although not a broadcast network, CNN's Jamie McIntyre has been reporting live from Guantanamo Bay for the past 5 days.

Gail Shister
TVNewser Columnist

Scratch Ted Koppel from the list of possible "Meet the Press" successors to Tim Russert (R.I.P.)

"That's the kind of thing that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me," says Koppel. "They need to find somebody younger than Tim, not older than Tim. He was 58. I'm 68. I just don't think it's realistic.

"If I were to do something like that, it could only be for a relatively short period. I don't think that would suit either NBC or me."

It's not like Koppel needs the work. In addition to his jobs at Discovery and NPR, he joined BBC America yesterday as a contributing analyst.

It's a handshake deal, says Rome Hartman, executive producer of "BBC World News America." Koppel is expected to appear live at 7 and 10 each night of the party conventions in Denver and Minneapolis. After that, about once a month, he says.

Koppel will be at the conventions reporting for an hour-long Discovery documentary. Should there be a conflict, Discovery, his primary employer, gets first dibs, he says.

Koppel and national conventions haven't always been on speaking terms. In San Diego in 1996, he and his ABC crew stomped out of the G.O.P. gathering because "there's no news here."

Hartman, working the convention for CBS at the time, cheered.

"The networks had complained for years that these are stage shows," he says. "Ted finally had the guts to say, 'I don't want to be part of it.'"

Twelve years later, Koppel has no regrets.

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That Ted Koppel is a busy guy.

Conan last night, the Today show and Morning Joe tomorrow, then back to Washington for a two-hour stint live on NPR, and beginning tomorrow night, four hours over the next four nights on the Discovery Channel. And now this: Koppel joins BBC World News America as a contributing analyst. The veteran newsman will offer his expertise on major international and national news stories, including the 2008 presidential election. Koppel is expected to travel to Denver and Minneapolis to be a part of the BBC World News America team broadcasting live from the conventions.

Said EP Rome Hartman, "Ted Koppel is the quintessential American journalist with a global perspective. His smart, sophisticated view of the world, and America's place in it, makes him a perfect fit for BBC World News America."

Koppel will contribute on the air alongside BBC World News America anchor Matt Frei as well as provide "illustrated essays" for the broadcast.

The press release is after the jump...

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Some rebranding changes are coming to all BBC news outlets around the world, with a new design and slight name change. All changes take effect on Monday.

The new titles keep the logo, but the background is now white instead of black and will include more animation. The United States-based channel program will include new opening titles, visual transitions and graphics.

Also changed will be the name of the channel — from BBC World to BBC World News. According to the press release, the change came about after, "research which revealed the new brand name to be more effective in conveying the content of the channel to audiences."

> Update: In the United States, the channel is currently known as BBC World News. BBC World will now be known by that name around the world.

Tonight BBC America will air an interview with Samantha Power. She's the Barack Obama foreign policy adviser who resigned today for calling Sen. Hillary Clinton a "monster". In the interview, done two four days ago by BBC's Jeremy Paxman, Power says Obama's plan for a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq was only a "best case scenario."

The interview airs on Newsnight at 10pmET/7pmPT.

Gail Shister
TVNewser Columnist

It's only a one-shot deal, but Ted Koppel could become a more regular presence on BBC America, says executive producer Rome Hartman.

A Lancashire lad, Koppel will make his "BBC World News America" debut at 7 p.m. next Wednesday. The ABC expat will analyze the previous day's "Super Tuesday" results, with Matt Frei anchoring.

"In the best of all worlds, Ted would be an occasional contributing analyst," says Hartman. Wednesday "is only a one-time deal, of course, but if you're me, you hope it turns into something more."

Hartman, exiled EP of Katie Couric's "CBS Evening News," labels Koppel as "one of the smartest, best journalists in America. If he feels like having a little fun and wants to do it again, it would be my dream come true."

Dream on, Rome. With Koppel already senior news analyst for NPR and managing editor for the Discovery Channel, we're guessing he's not looking to increase his workload.

Then again, Koppel being Koppel, he might surprise us. Particularly since Tom Bettag, his EP and best bud, goes back two decades with Hartman.

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TVNewser has learned MySpace has inked its first global network deal — a worldwide content partnership with the BBC. The announcement is expected later this morning.

Under the partnership, the best BBC video content will be made available online globally via MySpaceTV. MySpace users will be able to visit and subscribe to BBC Worldwide's MySpaceTV video channel in order to view, embed and virally share BBC content across the MySpace community.