When it comes to news gathering, there probably are not too many organizations out there more esteemed than the BBC, Britain’s British Broadcasting Corporation.

So when the BBC launched its 24-hour global news channel, BBC World News, in the U.S. earlier this month, amid much hoopla in New York's Times Square, it might have been read as a direct challenge to the U.S.'s already fiercely competitive cable news networks, mainly CNN, Fox News and MSNBC.

It should not be. The likelihood of the BBC ever becoming a threat actually appears quite remote, and for a variety of reasons, led by the huge challenge it faces gaining carriage deals with the big U.S. cable distributors.

The BBC is not entering the U.S as part of a well-orchestrated assault on CNN and Fox News but rather simply because, after much struggle, it has finally gained a carriage deal, one with Cablevision that puts it into some 2 million New York-area homes.

BBC World, the overseas arm of the network, is already broadcast in more than 200 countries, and the U.S. is certainly a market it wants and needs to be in.

Unlike the home channel, BBC World carries advertising, and being in the U.S. market will make the network more attractive to global advertisers while opening up opportunities to recruit U.S. advertisers. And it will do all this at very little additional cost, since the network's infrastructure and huge news-gathering operation are already in place.

But to become a major player it will have to clinch more distribution deals with more cable operators. BBC World took its present form in 1995, and in recent years the U.S. was the only big missing region in its distribution. Significant distribution here would mean being in upwards of 50 million of the 100 million U.S. multi-channel households, a huge leap.

Making these deals will not be easy, as the BBC is quick to admit. Says Jane Gorard, director of marketing and communication for BBC World: "It is not going to happen overnight."

Bosses at BBC World, in making their case for U.S. expansion, argue that the network provides Americans with a much-needed global perspective, and it cites traffic to its web site as evidence of American interest: some 50 percent of the BBC site’s 10 million unique visitors each month are from the U.S.

Further, the BBC World's half hour news airing nightly for some time on PBS draws nearly a million viewers. That compares to 687,000 average primetime viewers for CNN last month and 1.32 million for Fox News. "We think we do a better job of international news coverage than the 24-hour news channels in the U.S.," says Gorard.

So in February, BBC World linked up with Discovery. Discovery negotiated BBC World a deal with Cablevision, providing distribution in Metropolitan New York, leading to BBC World News' June 1 U.S. debut.

Network executives say more such deals will be announced in coming months, presumably in other major markets, but as even they admit, it will be a slog every bit of the way, from deal to deal to deal. Says Gorard: "We would like to blanket the country, but I think that might be an unrealistic goal to have."

But even if BBC World were to blanket the country, observers aren't persuaded it would gain audiences challenging those of CNN and Fox News. It may pull strong numbers for its half hour PBS new show, but that doesn't mean it will do the same when it's airing 24 hours of news.

There are real questions about how big its audience might become, specializing in global news. The news shown will not be especially tailored for American audiences, though in early July the service will add a one-hour morning show, featuring top British anchor George Alagiah, in an effort to compete with the American breakfast shows.

"I think it will appeal to an upscale, education-oriented audience," say Bruce Goerlich, executive vice president and director of strategic resources at ZenithOptimedia in New York. But he doubts the channel will pull away that many viewers from the existing all-news channels. Rather, he thinks it will compete with the likes of NPR and the news hour on PBS.

Media consultant Erwin Ephron of Ephron, Papazian & Ephron puts it more bluntly. While conceding BBC World will provide a valuable news service, he says, "I don’t think that they will turn the market upside down."