Outside Europe
Outside Europe, BBC World Service Television was the name of the 24-hour news, information and current affairs service, launched in Asia on 14 October 1991 as carried by Star TV, and also available from Turkey to South Korea on AsiaSat.[2] Competing against CNN International, it showed current affairs and documentary programming from BBC One and BBC Two in addition to BBC World Service News with entertainment programs aired on Star Plus. Explaining why the company choose to carry BBC WSTV instead of CNN, Richard Li, who was head of Star TV at the time, cited American bias projected in CNN's coverage of the Gulf War, in an interview with The New York Times.[5]
News Corporation, of Rupert Murdoch, began acquiring Star TV in 1993. In March 1994, the BBC and Star TV reached a deal after an out of court settlement, that would gradually drop BBC World Service Television from the satellite broadcaster's offerings. BBC WSTV would be dropped from the channel line-up for the Northeast Asia by mid-April that year, but would be available in the rest of Asia until 31 March 1996.[6][7][8]
BBC World Service Television programming was also carried in Africa on M-Net, launched on 15 April 1992, for 11 hours a day.[9] In Canada, its bulletins were carried on CBC Newsworld several times a day.[10]
BBC World Service Television news broadcasts were aired on Malaysia's TV1 until May 1994, with the BBC demanding that it would stop supply their content to Malaysia and should air their content without cuts,[11] which TV1's operator RTM thought was unfair.[12] It also said that the BBC ignored priorities and cultural values of Asians.[12]
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