BBC

One of the world’s most widely-distributed cable news channels is finally getting some major distribution in the U.S. BBC World News, the 24-hour international cable channel owned by the BBC, has inked a deal with Comcast–the country’s largest cable provider–to place it in most of the cable company’s major markets. By the end of 2012 BBC World News will be available in 15 million U.S. homes.

BBC World News is available in some 300 million homes around the world, and is the home of the dedicated U.S. nightly newscast “BBC World News America.”

The New York Times‘ Brian Stelter has more:

While that represents just a fraction of the 100 million American homes with cable or satellite subscriptions, it is an important foothold for the BBC, which wants to meet a perceived need for impartial international news.

The way some at the BBC see the television world, Fox News and MSNBC are occupying partisan poles; CNN is struggling to choose between substance and sensationalism; and another foreign import to the United States, Al Jazeera, is tainted by its host country, Qatar.

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The BBC has tapped former CBS news producer and executive Dick Meyer as its executive producer of BBC News, America. Meyer was most recently executive editor of NPR, and before that led CBSNews.com. He was also a producer for the “CBS Evening News with Dan Rather.”

Meyer will be tasked with expanding the BBC’s newsgathering reach stateside, and will oversee “BBC World news America” and the U.S. edition of BBC.com/news. he begins in February.

“I am honoured and humbled by this new responsibility,” said Meyer in a statement. “The BBC is simply the greatest newsgathering operation in the world today. As American news organizations undergo difficult change, the BBC has an important role in this country and a real opportunity for growth. I am proud to have the chance to help with that important work.”

The BBC World Service’s “Newshour” will have five guest-presenters (or “anchors,” as we call them stateside) the week of September 26-30.

Among the presenters will be a familiar face to many American viewers: ABC “This Week” anchor Christiane Amanpour. Amanpour will anchor “Newshour” Thursday, September 29 from New York.

The other guest hosts will include the BBC’s Jeremy Paxman, former NBC News and CBS News staffer and current French TV journalist Christine Ockrent, South African Broadcasting Corporation host Redi Tlhabi, and BBC Radio host Evan Davis.

NATO has acknowledged that it inadvertently killed a BBC journalist in Afghanistan. Ahmed Omed Khpulwak was shot by a U.S. soldier who believed he was suicide bomber in July.

Initial reports said that he was killed by insurgents, but a more thorough investigation confirmed that he was killed by a member of NATO’s ISAF.

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Longtime BBC Washington correspondent Katty Kay has been named lead anchor of “BBC World News America,” the nightly newscast that airs on the BBC World News cable channel and on PBS stations across the U.S. Kay is effectively replacing Matt Frei, who had been the lead anchor on the newscast before jumping to Channel 4 in May. Kay also appears regularly on many U.S. networks on shows such as “Meet the Press.”

“In an increasingly complex world, BBC World News America offers a unique global perspective on events both within and outside the U.S.” says Kay in a statement. ” I am delighted to be anchoring a newscast that covers not just the big breaking stories, but wider analysis and reports, as well as bringing the very best of BBC journalism from our network of correspondents around the world to US audiences.”

More information about the move, after the jump.

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The BBC’s Matthew Price, who was one of a few dozen journalists trapped by Gadhaffi loyalists inside Tripoli’s Rixos hotel, presented a feature explaining life inside the hotel during those few days. Among the concerns was that the Gadhaffi loyalists would use them as human shields.

Eventually, thanks to the Red Cross and some Arabic speaking journalists (including a Jordanian producer for CNN), they were freed:

A reporter for the BBC was among those killed in a coordinated bomb and gun attack in Afghanistan. The BBC’s Ahmed Omed Khpulwak was killed in the Uruzgan region in the attack, which killed at least 22 people. The Taliban took credit for the killings.

BBC Global News director Peter Horrocks said: “The BBC and the whole world are grateful to journalists like Ahmed Omed who courageously put their lives on the line to report from dangerous places.”

You may have seen this making the rounds late this week. Rupert Murdoch biographer and AdWeek editor Michael Wolff has a lot to say about News Corp., but he knows nothing about baseball.

Wolff was in a New York studio last week for a BBC interview on the News Corp. matter, but was introduced as Ben Walker, baseball editor for the Associated Press. After being intro’d, there was a pause before Wolff deadpanned, “You know what? It’s even a worse situation than that, because I am not Ben Walker and I know nothing about baseball.”

Wolff will be on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” … for real … tomorrow morning talking about News Corp.

And a bit of advice to all you analysts/guests/talking heads: should this happen to you, don’t say anything when you’re mis-introduced. There’s a much greater chance it won’t go viral. Unless, of course, your goal is that it does.

Video after the jump…

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Rome Hartman is leaving BBC America and joining NBC News where he will be Executive Producer of the new primetime magazine hour anchored by Brian Williams.

Hartman joined the BBC in 2007 as the first EP of the network’s “World News America.” Before that he’d spent 24 years with CBS News, in his final year as the EP, overseeing the launch of “The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.” Couric recently departed that show, and CBS News, after five years. Matt Frei, the original anchor of “World News America,” also left that post last month.

Also announced, NBC News veteran David Corvo has been promoted to Senior Executive Producer of Primetime News, overseeing the new newsmagazine as well as “Dateline.” Corvo joined NBC in 1995 after spending most of his career at CBS News, at times, working with Hartman.

Hartman will be responsible for the development and launch of the Williams hour, a live, weekly broadcast which NBC says “will be built around the week’s biggest and most interesting events, meaningful and in-depth stories, and timely newsmaker interviews.”

More in the press release after the jump…

Update: BBC statements after the jump as well…

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“BBC World News America” anchor Matt Frei is leaving the program to become Washington correspondent for the UK’s Channel 4. Frei has anchored the program since October, 2007.

Channel 4 is rejiggering its lineup, hence the addition of Frei. Political correspondent Cathy Newman is becoming a regular “presenter” (that would be “anchor” stateside) while Jackie Long is joining the network as social affairs editor.

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