The BBC is running a $1 million campaign to promote its World News network in the U.S., the New York Times reported yesterday, and Cablevision Systems Corporation already picked up the network in New York. An initial 10,000 copies of the News Corp-run, Murdoch-owned Times will be printed in the U.S. starting Tuesday.

“One of the things that competition in Britain brings out in papers is that British papers have to be very, very good at what they do, so the quality of arts writing, for example, is certainly superior. The quality of sports writing here is definitely better than that of the New York Times,” London Times editor Robert Thomson told the UK’s Press Gazette. “What surprised me when I arrived here in 1998 was how poor the business coverage was on the New York Times. Perhaps it’s got a little better, but at the same time there are openings for other providers.”

In their drive to drum up US interest, the BBC and The Times both follow weekly news magazine The Economist, which this past February campaigned to increase sales in Baltimore.

Is it Britmania? Nick Shore doesn’t think so — instead, says the principal at the strategic consulting company Way Group in New York, it’s a desire for more than the American media offers. “This has the feeling of Americans deciding they need something outside the system to get a perspective on what’s going on,” Shore told the New York Times. “It’s a global version of a second opinion.”

Source: The New York Times, the Press Gazette (through I Want Media)