BBC to Launch TV News Channel in Iran

LONDON, October 10: BBC World Service will launch a
television news service for Iran in early 2008 that will be funded by the
British government to the tune of £15m a year.

The channel, based in London, will broadcast in the Farsi
language and initially transmit for eight hours a day, seven days a week, from
5 p.m. to 1 a.m. and will be available free via satellite and cable.

Funding for the new service was announced by U.K. Chancellor
of the Exchequer Gordon Brown. The decision to implement the service follows
proposals drawn up by senior BBC management that were submitted to the Foreign
and Commonwealth Office for their consent, as the BBC is obliged to do.

This funding will be in addition to BBC World Service's
existing grant-in-aid funding from the U.K. Government and will have no impact
on the current BBC World Service portfolio of services.

"The BBC's Persian radio and online services are
well-respected by Iranians, especially by opinion formers,” said BBC World
Service director Nigel Chapman. "In Iran we are regarded as the most
trusted and objective of all international broadcasters for the way we provide
impartial news and information about the wider world and the crucial part Iran
is playing on the regional and global stage.

"But television is increasingly dominating the way that
millions of Iranian people receive their news,” he continued. "Therefore
the BBC proposed to the Foreign Office that we launch a television service in
Farsi to complement our existing independent news and information services for
Iran on radio and online. Like all BBC services, the new television service
will be editorially independent of the UK Government.”