Aftershock– a new season on the BBC’s international news services investigating the impact of the global recession.

Aftershock– a new season on the BBC’s international news services investigating the impact of the global recession.

    

BBC World News, BBC World Service and BBC.com

27 August, 2009. On September 15, 2008, New York-based Lehman Brothers, one of the world’s oldest and most respected investment banks, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It was the largest bankruptcy filed in US corporate history. One year on from this pivotal event, the BBC’s global news services- BBC World Service, BBC World News and BBC.com- are launching Aftershock, a season investigating the impact of the global recession on all facets of life since that seismic day.

Highlights include:

Aftershock on BBC World News:

BBC World News, the BBC's international 24-7 news and information channel, launches the Aftershock season on 7 September across its news programs.

Premiering on BBC World News, is How a Busted Bank Changed the World, the BBC's Business Editor Robert Peston will examine what happened and what we've learned since the day the money stopped. In this new documentary, he meets many of the people who witnessed the demise of Lehman's, from bank bosses, to Wall Street Lawyers and Government Regulators and ask them a year on, if anything has changed. How a Busted Bank Changed the World will transmit on BBC World News on 12 September (and BBC World Service’s Business Daily on 15 September).

Marking the start of the week, which saw the real crisis in the financial markets, BBC World News begins its extensive news coverage with reports across the globe including Shanghai, Mumbai, New York and Japan. Special reports on how the credit crunch has affected the housing market and small businesses will also be aired from the U.S. in conjunction with Labor Day.

BBC World News' World Business Report, from 2300 IST on 10 September, will bring viewers live news from Dalian in China on the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of New Champions.

On the weekend of 12 and 13 September, India Business Report, BBC World News' special programme devoted to business news from Mumbai, provides in-depth analysis on the big Indian conglomerates that took advantage of the credit crunch by buying Western companies.

In an ambitious and truly global production, BBC World News will broadcast a series of live reports from the channel's expert presenters across the world on 15 September from 1930 IST. Mishal Husain (Singapore), Nik Gowing (Mumbai), Matt Frei (New York) and Jonathan Charles, Lucy Hockings, George Alagiah and Tanya Beckett in (London) will report on: Where is the banking system now and where is it going? What happened to the big Wall Street players? How much did the banks eventually write off and who were the winners and losers? The shifting of power to China and Asia? Could this happen again? And how much did banks eventually write off?

BBC World News broadcasts Working Lives: Dubai, a co-production with BBC Persian TV, on 12 September. The programme follows the experiences of five people including a taxi driver and a billionaire, who have to deal with life's current economic realities in a land of economic promise.

Our World: Hollywood or Bust airs on 16 September and provides an analysis on how Hollywood's movie industry can survive the recession. The programme also broadcasts a candid interview with Sumner Redstone, the head of one of the world's largest media conglomerates, VIACOM.

BBC World News America marks the one-year anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse and ensuing global economic meltdown with two special programs anchored live from New York by Matt Frei: Monday 14 September (from the BBC’s New York bureau) and Tuesday 15 September (from Wall Street). In addition, special features leading up to the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh include an in-depth report from Washington Correspondent Katty Kay addressing a crucial question: is the U.S. government's massive economic stimulus program actually working? The recovery in China also comes under the spotlight in a report that asks if the Chinese might be replacing America as the world's dominant economic player. And BBC World News America meets three people who personify the links in the financial chain that led to last year’s economic collapse– the American homebuyer, the Wall Street financier who repackaged their subprime mortgage, and the Chinese investor who bought it.