BBC WORLD

OK, speaking as someone who's spending a lot of time very far away from home, here's what I think about BBC WORLD.

It's pretty good as far as international news is concerned, with all of it's many correspondents around the world, but of course as far as breaking news is concerned, CNN is much faster.

The problem for me is how poorly it serves British people abroad, in favour of getting a wider international audience. Where I am right now (the Philippines), I can get international channels from Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Japan, China, Korea, the USA and many more which specifically cater for thier own people, whether ex-pats or holidaymakers or whatever. From the UK, there's just BBC WORLD, and apart from the odd Panorama episode every so often, there's very poor UK coverage.

Now, I'm not saying they should give up on the priority on world news, just that they should throw in a programme on the half hour a couple of times a day, just like CNN International do with American Edition. Or maybe show the 1, 6 and 10 bullitins. And it is sad, by the way, that so far CNN seems to be doing better coverage on the election campaign, using ITN's reports.

I know that there's BBC PRIME and BBC AMERICA, but they're not avaliable here in Asia, and neither is Sky News. Apart from when there's something major like foot and mouth, the only decent way for me to find out what's happening at home apart from going to a net cafe is by either staying up till 4am to watch the BBC News at 6 (with the headline and coming up sequences edited out so as to aviod the regional bits) on Japanese TV, or watch the little news bits on Bloomburg when they take the breakfast show from London.

Anyway, that's my little rant over.

Not exactly sure where abouts in Asia you are, but I think it is the Philippines right?
Either way, Sky News is very widely available across Asia, infact they had a few e-mails on Yourcall from Hong Kong today.
However, as you say it is not (and indeed if this is where you live!) available in the Philippines.
The fact is BBC World is not a UK news channel.
However, CNN International does include a daily American Edition programme, live from Atlanta, focusing on only American Issues.
Personally I rarely watch it as I think CNN is too focused on American news as it is.
I was however shocked to see BBC World say:

'Tony Blair, leader of the British Labour Party and currently Prime Minister of the UK reacted to opposition from the British Conservative Party in the form of Party Leader William Hague'.
If the coverage on BBC World was that good about the UK then they would not have to patronise viewers, and think that they did not have a clue about politics in the UK.
I mean, 'The British Labour Party' - what's all this about!?

Bloomberg is very good IMO, I like it for money news.
Sky News only really broadcasts around the world for ex-pats, holiday makers who find it reassuring to see a british news service they have heard of when they go abroad and also for the foreign office and British consuls overseas.
It is however a popular choice, (in terms of viewing figures globally it ranks 3rd behind CNN and BBC World)..
it is normally only watched by people from overseas if there is a big breaking news story perhaps in the UK, or overseas which Sky are covering.
For example during Kosovo, Sky was put out across many many networks it would not normally go out on, and people now trust it with events in the Balkans, and whenever there is a big story in the Balkans people tend to trust it more (viewing figures show this) than CNN or the BBC, as it is reporting from an outside view.

I think your best option is the internet really, or of course you could record the Six O'clock and just watch it 3 hours later at 7am, or whenever you get up.

I don't understand why you are surprised Cheshirec .. BBC World just like BBC World Service radio has to assume that people watching/listening around the World may not know who the political parties are in the Uk, just as we may not know who the big players in say Indian politics are. Britain is not as big a player on the world stage as it once was .... it's not like saying 'who is the American President' ... most people don't know who Tony Blair is so it has to be explained. I admit that it can look a little strange to UK viewers when Tony Blair is captioned 'British Prime Minister' on the joint overnight service but that's a compromise.
BBC World tries to be an 'international' service so it can be watched by anyone anywhere.

Yep! A little explanation goes a long long way!

Believe me…people do not know stuff about British politics. You do need to explain some things - just incase. The jobs of news channels is to inform, not assume.

Yes but my point was that if BBC World had a decent political programme, and a programme dedicated to information about the UK, as CNN do with American Edition, which was the point of this thread, then BBC World would not have to explain to people who Tony Blair was.

Well they could, but in a way i'm glad that BBC World are the way they are, it makes a refreshing change from BBC One and crap 24(nice vote 2001 graphics BTW!)

People can't watch World 24-hours a day to just catch one little programme. And (I think this was mentioned above) CNNI does have American Edition, but they still put the US President text under Bush's name on the aston…World doesn't even do that

There are only a few people that BBC World don't caption - the American President is one, so is the Pope ... I'm trying to think of any others ... oh the Queen ... that's about it I think.

They don't caption Tony Blair on the national/regional news do they? Plus what about that Irish bloke with the beard, who used to have an actor to read all his lines on the news?

National News (BBC1/N24) is different - they don't caption Tony Blair, William Hague or Charles Kennedy, as well as George W Bush, the Pope etc. We do caption Gerry Adams (who I think you mean) who is from Sinn Fein.

if you watch the news every day then you know who people are but some people only watch the odd bulletin so they will need to know who the person is. What gets me is on BBC World the newsreader says there name accompanied by an aston of their name. Why doesnt news 24 put up an aston or at least when it goes global?