B.B.C. world TV?

Press, 16 February 1984, Page 15

B.B.C. world TV?

NZPA-Reuter London The British Broadcasting Corporation (8.8. C. plans to seek government support to launch an international television service for North America and Western Europe. The 8.8. C. already runs radio world services which attract 100 million regular listeners, and 8.8. C. chiefs believe that a £5 million ($15.12 million) investment would allow a start on a parallel television service within a year.

Douglas Muggeridge, managing director of 8.8. C. Overseas Braodcasting,

aired the proposal in a speech to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council. Programs would be sent from London by satellite and could then be rebroadcast or fed into existing cable systems in North America and Europe. 8.8. C. services within Britain are funded from viewer licence fees, but external broadcasting is run on a direct grant from the Foreign Office. The spokesman said Mr Muggeridge would propose similar government funding for the overseas television service. According to one British

press report, not confirmed by the 8.8. C.,, the publicly owned broadcasting service wants eventually to expand the service to cover Arab countries, South-East Asia and the Third World. But 8.8. C. chiefs have warned that a world service might not extend to the Third World until the next century because of the cost of receiving equipment. The spokesman said that as the price of satellite reception dishes fell it would be possible to broadcast the service from satellites directly into television sets.