NEW YORK (Fortune) -- News junkies, rejoice. Earlier this year, BBC World, the British Broadcasting Corporation's 24-hour news channel, launched in the U.S. on Cablevision's digital cable service, marking the news channel's first foray into the U.S. market. (BBC America, which features entertainment programming as well as morning and evening newscasts, has been widely available for years.)

Richard Sambrook, CEO of BBC World, recently spoke with Fortune's Stephanie N. Mehta about competition in the news business and why Americans are ready for the "Beeb's" take on current affairs.

With Fox, CNN, MSNBC and three ESPNs, does the United States really need another news channel?

Firstly, quite a lot of research shows that American audiences do want more international news. And there is no news organization that has greater international base of reporters and bureaus than the BBC, that's our great strengths. I do think there's a market for that.

Where do you have reporters that the U.S.-based competition doesn't?

During the 1990s when American news networks were cutting foreign bureaus, the BBC went in the other direction, and invested in international bureaus.

So, we have had a team in Islamabad in Pakistan for many, many years. We've been reporting in Afghanistan long before 9/11. We have reporters and stringers throughout the Middle East at the moment with a lot of expertise.

We are the only Western news organization with a bureau in Gaza, for example.

Given that most American news organizations seem to be contracting, not expanding, what's the business case for the expansion of the bureaus and your expansion into the United States?

Well, the BBC's USP [unique selling proposition] is international coverage, that's very much the driving force. And BBC World News is an international channel, what audiences in the U.S. see is exactly the same as audiences all over the world.

As for the launch in North America, it was the only region of the world where BBC World wasn't available on a 24-hour basis. Now we've finally launched on Cablevision in New York, and we very much hope we're going to be able to secure some other distribution deals to take BBC World out on a 24-hour basis throughout the states.

You've created a morning news show specifically with the American audience in mind. What does that mean, exactly? Cooking demonstrations and interviews with celebrities hyping their movies?

It's morning in the U.S., but it's evening in Asia, which is a very important audience, too, and it is the same program.

If you like, we're trying to connect the world, trying to throw a ring around the world and connect those audiences with programs that are relevant to both. We tend to emphasize an agenda and interviewees according to where the sun is, and that morning audience for the U.S. is very important for us.

The other place where we customize our output a little bit for North America is in the evenings, where we have a co-presentation between London and Washington and New York each night, interviewing Washington opinion formers and so on, and that's on in peak evening time in the U.S.

Most BBC America viewers I know fancy themselves pretty sophisticated. Are you going for a high-end audience with BBC World News?

We appeal to an audience that is interested in the world, interested in world events, politics, business and culture. It is very much a high-end audience we are appealing to.

Can you give a good example of how the BBC's take on a current event differs from the American approach?

The BBC aims to have a very diverse range of voices and interviewees and opinions. We try not to tell people what to think. We try and lay the evidence and lay the interviews out and allow our viewers to make up their own minds. We'll report from both sides of a conflict, we have an international approach.

You got your start as a journalist. How has the transition to management been?

I tell my team that what gets me out of bed in the morning is still a desire to bring the best journalism and the best programs to our audiences, and that's what used to get me out of bed in the morning when I was a producer in the field.

The motivation is the same, but the skills are different. I'm learning a great deal, and at the moment, particularly learning a great deal about the U.S. market.