Gates Foundation gives $20M to BBC charity arm

A new grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation illustrates the way lines have blurred between traditional media and new ways to communicate about health and development.

At $20 million, the five-year grant to the BBC World Service Trust is the foundation's largest so far with a media connection. But foundation officials say it is not like previous grants to news organizations, including ABC and PBS.

"This grant does not support the news gathering capacity of the BBC," foundation spokesman Chris Williams wrote in an e-mail. "This grant is essentially public education."