NBC Deals for Overseas News-Gathering Agency

NBC, seeking to cut its news division’s foreign costs, is trying to buy nearly 38% of Visnews, an international TV news agency, for what could prove a new news-gathering arrangement overseas, sources said Tuesday.

If the deal goes through, there is a possibility that “some” NBC News staffers overseas might be reassigned to join with Visnews staffers in a new foreign news-gathering venture, said one source close to the talks.

It wouldn’t fundamentally change NBC’s coverage of major foreign stories. Rather, the source said, it would increase NBC’s ability to get its own coverage of so-called “spot” or breaking stories overseas by giving the network a say in what Visnews covers. NBC also would have an “equity position” in the for-profit company.

Founded in 1957 and based in London, Visnews now has two British owners--the Reuters news agency, which has an 88.75% controlling interest, and the British Broadcasting Corp., which owns the balance.

Visnews says it serves more than 400 broadcasting organizations in 84 countries. It has some 400 employees, most of whom (322) are in Europe. Another 37 are in the United States, 22 in the Middle East, 15 in Asia, seven in Africa and five in Latin America and the Caribbean.

NBC News has 22 overseas offices, ranging from one-person outposts to its London bureau, a major news and satellite transmission center with more than 60 staffers. It has subscribed to the TV news agency for at least 20 years, using Visnews-provided news footage--some of which is by the BBC--as a supplement to its own overseas coverage.

It currently gets Visnews footage and reports on a nearly-exclusive basis in the United States, with public TV’s “MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour” and public TV station WGBH in Boston the only other major subscribers.

NBC, Reuters and Visnews spokesmen declined Tuesday to discuss NBC’s negotiations on Visnews, although Dom Gioffre, an NBC spokesman, said it is “no secret that for some time NBC has been interested in exploring this type of thing. Whether something comes from this particular opportunity remains to be seen.”

Several sources here and in London said they expect an announcement by the end of this week.

If NBC buys the percentage it seeks, Reuters would keep a controlling interest of 51%. It is not clear how much say NBC News would have in Visnews’ operation.

The issue of editorial control proved one of two stumbling blocks several years ago when NBC unsuccessfully tried to buy part of Ted Turner’s Cable News Network. Turner balked at NBC’s terms of editorial control and a 51% interest in CNN.

The new operation, which a press release said could start on Jan. 1, wouldn’t mark the first time a major American television network had bought an interest in a foreign news-gathering operation based outside the United States.

About six years ago, ABC News bought an interest in a London-based organization now called Worldwide Television News, which, like Visnews, supplies news footage and reports to subscribers around the world.

ABC’s interest in the company now is 45%, with London’s commercial ITN network owning the same amount and Australia’s Channel 9 owning the rest, according to an ABC official who asked not to be identified, .

Last year, Worldwide acquired a major American subscriber--CBS News.