WHILE the cameras of the world's media jockeyed to get the best shots of last week's handover events, BBC World Service Television hoped its coverage of the proceedings would have brought in a whole new audience.
The channel called BBC World is one of only two 24-hour global news channels in existence.
'The handover was the biggest event of the year, probably the biggest planned event we've ever covered,' said the managing director of BBC World, Mark Young.
'Big set-piece events like this tend to attract audiences into news channels, after that we are judged on our day-to-day coverage of news.' Rival US-based CNN International TV channel founded its reputation on its extensive live coverage of unfolding events like the Gulf war.
BBC World put out more than 24 hours of programming from Hong Kong during three-day period over the handover.
Mr Young said the handover had proved to be an incentive for companies to start advertising on the channel for the first time.
'Over the four-day period we introduced 36 new brands,' he said. This would not amount to a big increase in revenue but new advertisers tend to stay with the channel after this first campaign.