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"BBC World News" dropped by WLIW and WNET

BY VERNE GAY | verne.gay@newsday.com

May 1, 2008

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Say goodbye to "BBC World News" on WLIW/21 and WNET/13. The stations will drop the late night news program - airing on both since 1998 - in favor of a new Ch. 21-produced international news program this October.

The new show, "Your World Tonight," will likely be produced in Manhattan, said Ch. 13 president Neal Shapiro in an interview yesterday, who added that "BBC has only a British point of view - [the stations] wanted something that has other points of view."

The show will incorporate reports from correspondents who work for various TV news organizations around the world, he said, "plus we'll have interviews with many foreign diplomats and experts right here - the United Nations is in our backyard."

Shapiro also added that Chs. 13 and 21 had sought to develop another program because the BBC wants to limit national broadcast distribution of its newscast so that it can draw more viewers to its cable network BBC America. Ch. 21 has been, in PBS lingo, "the presenting station" for "BBC" to the Public Broadcasting Service since 1998.