BBC World News - Availability

Availability

BBC World News is most commonly watched as a free-to-air (FTA) Channel. The channel is available in all parts of Europe and many parts of the world FTA via satellite. It is currently available via terrestrial FTA in Greece and was also available in Berlin from 2000 to March 2007 and in Italy from December 2003 to November 2010. Although not officially available in the UK, it is available to people who point their satellite dishes at Astra 19.2°E, Hot Bird and Thor. The Middle East feed is also available to UK residents through Badr/Arabsat. In most of the world, it is carried on nearly all satellite and cable platforms.

A daily version of its news bulletins are also rebroadcast on many FTA terrestrial channels such as in New Zealand, where it is carried overnight on TV One, and in Trinidad and Tobago where it is carried overnight on TV6.

In the Cayman Islands, a BBC World News update is broadcast at 8:00 AM local time on local channel Cayman 27. In addition, the channel itself is available under a subscription package on Weststar TV, a cable TV service in the territory.

In the Falkland Islands, the channel is broadcast by KTV Ltd.

In Europe, analogue satellite broadcasting via Hot Bird 6 ceased on 18 April 2006 at midday, although its digital free-to-air signal is replicated on Hot Bird 6, Hot Bird 7A, Thor 2 and on Astra 1KR.

It is also available 24/7 in Australia on Foxtel, Austar and Optus Television as well as the Telstra NextG phone network. In New Zealand, it is also broadcast via satellite on Sky satellite service and via cable on TelstraClear.

In Asia, it was originally carried on STAR TV, the pan-Asian satellite television service based in Hong Kong, which was later acquired by Rupert Murdoch, but switched to PanAmSat in 1994. It is also available on Astro in Malaysia, originally part of the Astro News channel line-up before being a stand alone channel in 2002. In India, it was free-to-air until 15 June 2006 when it became a pay channel.

BBC World News has been available in Africa on DStv since late 1995, and its bulletins have also been rebroadcast on South African Broadcasting Corporation's (SABC) terrestrial channels in South Africa. In 1996, it became available in Latin America and the Caribbean.

In Canada, the channel is available on Bell TV and Shaw Direct satellite services, as well as on most digital cable services. Shaw Cable and Rogers Cable carry the channel as part of their analogue cable packages. The Canadian news channel CBC Newsworld also carries a BBC World newscast from 18:00 to 18:30 daily.

BBC World News is not widely available on cable/satellite services in the United States, but a 2006 agreement with Discovery Networks (which is a partner in BBC America), announced it would seek distribution for the channel. American viewers used to be able to watch selected BBC World bulletins on BBC America and over 200 PBS stations. On 4 April 2009, the morning broadcast of BBC World News was dropped from BBC America. The morning broadcast of BBC World News programming returned on 18 May 2009 and airs from 04:00–8:00 on weekdays. It was also reported in The New York Times in April 2008, that some PBS stations have dropped BBC World News after being told by BBC executives that the BBC had made it "pretty clear that the future of the BBC was not intertwined with public broadcasting." Many PBS stations replaced BBC World News with the PBS-produced Worldfocus. However, many stations returned to airing BBC World News after Worldfocus was cancelled in April 2010. Currently, the BBC produces two programs for PBS in the United States. BBC World News is available through Los Angeles station, KCET. It picked up BBC World News after it was dropped by New York PBS station WLIW in favor of Worldfocus. BBC World News America is also available to PBS stations after it was pulled from BBC America. Since 1 January 2011 KCET is no longer a PBS-member station, therefore New York's WLIW syndicates BBC World News and BBC World News America to PBS-member stations and PBS World.

The station has been gaining popularity in the United States more recently however, with several of the countries largest cable providers adding it to their line up. Comcast (Xfinity), Time Warner, Cablevision, and Verizon FiOS all provide the network to most, if not all, of their subscribers. FiOS has carried it since its (FiOS's) inception, while Cablevision and Time Warner have been carrying it for some time in the New York City area at the very least, and Comcast has been adding it to their lineup in various markets since the digital conversion freed up bandwidth allowing them to add new content. Comcast claims new channels are added based on consumer request, and BBC World News was a frequently requested addition; Comcast further claims that the channel is there to stay as it is one of the highest performing news and information stations and has generated a large and positive response from customers.

Since BBC World News's inception in 1995, the BBC sought carriage for the channel on U.S. cable and satellite systems. It took 11 years for a U.S. distribution deal to be signed, a deal with Discovery Communications that was announced on 25 January 2006. In September 2006, Cablevision in the New York City metropolitan area agreed to retransmit the channel and was the first company to carry BBC World News. The channel is part of Cablevision's iO Digital Cable service, channel 104.

BBC World News on other cable systems

• Verizon FiOS: Channel 107 (All regions)
• Comcast: channel 387 (Michigan)
• Comcast: Channel 167 San Francisco Bay Area started on 13 December 2011, and will be available from December 2011 across all Comcast areas
• Cox Communications: Channel 252 (Northern Virginia)
• Grande Communications: Channel 122 (Texas)
• Western Kentucky TV (WKTV) Channel 136