C-SPAN’s Convention Coverage Heads Overseas

C-SPAN’s gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions is drawing interest from abroad.

The network announced Monday that telecasters from the United Kingdom, Canada, France and Germany will pick up all or part of its coverage of the Democratic conclave from Boston’s FleetCenter July 26-29 and the Republican gathering at New York’s Madison Square Garden in August.

From Boston, C-SPAN will present a convention preview from 3 p.m.-4 p.m. and then cover the event nightly from 4 p.m.-11 p.m. Afterward, there will be a call-in show.

BBC Parliament and CPAC from Canada plan to pick up the entire gamut of C-SPAN’s coverage, according to a spokeswoman at the U.S. network.

For its part, France’s Public Sénat will air select speeches from the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), and former President Bill Clinton.

Germany’s Phoenix channel also has interest in covering speeches from and commentary about Kerry and Clinton, plus vice-presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards (D. N.C.), former President Jimmy Carter, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and former Vice President Al Gore, according to C-SPAN.