America's foreign news deficit may benefit BBC

AMERICA'S FOREIGN NEWS DEFICIT MAY BENEFIT BBC
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Steve Brennan]
Who would have thought that the cynical adage "no news is good news" could in fact be the best calling card Britain's BBC might have when knocking on the door of the potentially gigantic U.S. market for its storied news operations? But the fact is that the perceived dearth of international news and analysis on U.S. mainstream broadcasters is one of the big marketing ploys the BBC is using to create a bigger footprint in the U.S. for its global TV news. BBC World News' slogan is "See the world you've been missing." The campaign approach follows a recent research study carried out by U.S. pollster Frank Luntz for BBC World News which found: 1) Sixty-five percent of people questioned believed it is extremely important or very important to have access to international news. 2) There is a significant gap in the amount of international news demanded and what is being supplied. 3) Forty-seven percent of those questioned rate current coverage of international news as only fair or poor. 4) The biggest frustrations with national cable news are too many tabloid stories (40% name it as their biggest or next-biggest frustration), too repetitive (32%), biased (31%) and too much politics (20%).
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