More catch-up. MSNBC announced Thursday that the network would be available in Southern Africa beginning Monday…

Beginning Monday, November 19, Southern Africa will have the ability to view America’s fastest growing news channel, MSNBC when it begins distribution on Free2View TV as its exclusive news provider.

Free2View, as the name implies, is Southern Africa’s only free to air satellite television platform; providing broadcasters and rights holders with a stable, advertising funded platform to deliver their content to the millions in the region who had been previously excluded from these global content streams.

“This expansion is integral to NBC News’ commitment to growing its business internationally,” said Steve Capus, President of NBC News. “The opportunities are limitless and as MSNBC continues to grow and thrive within the US, the timing is right for us to increase its global presence as well.”

“MSNBC – led by Keith Olberman - is witnessing double digit growth nationally and this momentum is allowing us to take advantage of these global opportunities,” said Adam Jones, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of NBC News. “We’ve set an aggressive plan to increase the global reach of this news division and this distribution deal will insure that more people – now worldwide – will get their news from NBC News.”
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The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder blogs about a question during the CNN debate that’s caused a bit of an uproar on the internet…

“Every single question asked during the debate by the audience had to be approved by CNN,” Luisa writes. “I was asked to submit questions including “lighthearted/fun” questions. I submitted more than five questions on issues important to me. I did a policy memo on Yucca Mountain a year ago and was the finalist for the Truman Scholarship. For sure, I thought I would get to ask the Yucca question that was APPROVED by CNN days in advance.”

Ambinder also has reaction from CNN…

“When her Yucca mountain question was asked, she was given the opportunity to ask another question, and my understanding is that the [diamond v. pearls] questions was her other question,” Feist said. “She probably was disappointed, but we spent a lot of time with a bunch of different candidates on Yucca Mountain, and we were at the end of the debate.”

Catching up on things I had to set aside while I was in New York, CNN notes that its Democratic debate on Thursday was the highest ranking primary debate ever.

CNN’s Democratic Presidential Candidates debate last night was the No. 1 most-watched primary debate of all time, averaging 4.036 million total viewers. The debate not only topped all other debates this year, but delivered more viewers than every other primary debate in cable news history. The debate also delivered the highest P25-54 demo of the year.

11/15/07 – Democratic Presidential Candidates Debate, Las Vegas

P2+: 4,036,000

P25-54: 1,123,000

Here is a chart that ranks the debates so far this campaign season…(Note: edited for space considerations)
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Ok, I really need your help this week. I’ve been too busy running around like a chicken with its head cut off to pay much attention to the news network broadcasts this week. So post your submissions and I’ll post my list on Sunday…

Ok, I’m home. And I’m still wired from my whirlwind trip to NYC. I probably had 16 hours of sleep the past four nights and I need to decompress. I’ll start pouring over my photos tonight and start blogging about the trip in more detail tomorrow. But I want to thank everyone I saw and met and all the PR people who helped make this trip a reality. You have no idea how hard these networks work to put their product on the air. What I saw was only a slice of the full picture but it amazes me just how dedicated everyone is to their job. You all have your own opinions of these networks and how they do and what they do and why they do it. But at the end of the day they’re all after the same goal, to deliver a quality product and they’re passionate about how they do it.