BBC

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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Did you hear? There was some sort of wedding today.

British expats, Anglophiles, ad agency types and reporters crammed into the BBC’s New York City offices bright and early this morning to watch the Royal Wedding.

Starting at 6 AM, the offices were transformed into a giant party, with televisions at every corner tuned into BBC One’s coverage of the Royal nuptials. Your TVNewser editor spotted actor Stephen Baldwin sitting at a diner booth in the office kitchen chatting with a group of young women, while nearby guests poured cups of tea and coffee.

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Al Jazeera English is still struggling to gain distribution in the U.S., but that isn’t stopping the channel from experimenting with some new programming to try and become more relevant. The Huffington Post’s Michael Calderone attended the premiere party for AJE’s new program “The Stream,” which attempts to combine traditional TV and social media.

While AJE’s still pitching cable providers like Time Warner and Comcast, the network’s simultaneously ramping up its online and social media presence to help promote its international news brand to an audience of digital natives–some who may be too young to remember when Al Jazeera was the media bogeyman of the Bush years.

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“The proof is in the pudding,” he said, seated amid a roomful of partygoers drinking, mingling and grabbing Al Jazeera t-shirts and hats. “And when they see that it’s intelligent, it’s informed, it’s global, it’s connected, that starts to be exciting to people.”

Elsewhere, The Guardian reports that the BBC is considering retooling its U.K. cable news channel to save money:

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BBC drew more than 19.3 million unique U.S. users in March, an all-time high, according to data from comScore, marking a 35 percent gain from its February unique user total.

Page views of 273 million for the month also represented a record, and the total was up 30 percent compared with February.

The BBC earned eight Webby Award nominations, including two for products that debuted in 2010: BBC Travel and the BBC News iPad app.

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Ted Koppel returns to the anchor chair tonight for a special edition of “BBC World News America.” The former ABC News “Nightline” anchor will report the latest news from Libya, Yemen and Japan with BBC’s correspondents in those nations.BBC World News America airs at 7pmET/PT on BBC AMERICA and BBC World News.

The Royal Wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton is just over a month away, so the U.S. networks are beginning to think about their coverage plans.

As we reported, MSNBC is planning to send Martin Bashir to London for the week, but the most thorough coverage may be found on BBC America.

The U.S.-based cable networks is planning a live, commercial-free simulcast of BBC One’s coverage.

Huw Edwards will lead the BBC’s coverage.

In addition to televising the BBC One feed, BBC America also has a slate of documentaries and BBC World News specials about the royals, such as “Prince William in Africa,” as he undertook a royal visit to the continent last year.

More information, after the jump.

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In possibly the worst example yet of foreign journalists being attacked while covering the uprising in the Middle East and North Africa, two journalists for the BBC were arrested and tortured by Libyan officials.

In addition to being repeatedly cuffed and beaten by officials, the pair saw and spoke to other prisoners, who were chained in tiny cages inside of a military camp.

The next morning, the journalists were subjected to a mock execution, with hoods placed over their heads and forced to line up against the wall, as an army officer shot at the wall right next to them.

Update: A video interview with the journalists is after the jump.

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The BBC is shaking up its news distribution plans here in the U.S.

The Beeb is hoping to expand domestic carriage of its 24 hour news channel BBC World News, as well as to add new readers and viewers to its content online and elsewhere on TV.

As part of the move, the evening newscast “BBC World News America” will be leaving BBC America, and will instead be televised twice a day on BBC World News.

The reformatted program will also be made available to PBS stations nationwide. The BBC already has a programming agreement with PBS to present some news programming, the new deal simply expands on it.

BBC World News has limited distribution in the U.S., but the situation in the Middle East has led many people to ask cable providers for more international news options. While much of that chatter has been about Al Jazeera English, BBC World News may fit the bill.

The plan is for BBC America to focus exclusively on entertainment programming, complemented by the news programming on BBC World News.

More information, including expansion plans for BBC.com, after the jump.

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Former ABC News anchor and current BBC World news America contributor Ted Koppel spoke to the BBC’s Katty Kay yesterday about the Iran hostage crisis, 30 years later. ABC’s “Nightline,” which will be shortened by five minutes February 4, rose to prominence during the crisis.