Al-Jazeera service in English starts (I heard it is accessable via the

[rodeodance]

web also) and that the US has not picked it up on satilite. (abc news?)

Al-Jazeera service in English starts

By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer 24 minutes ago

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Ten years after it started Arabic-language broadcasts that angered leaders in the region and Washington, Al-Jazeera on Wednesday launched an English-language news channel available in more than 80 million homes but lacking major U.S. distribution.


Al-Jazeera English went on the air at 3 p.m. (8 a.m. EST), broadcasting from the station's headquarters in Doha, capital of the tiny Persian Gulf state of Qatar.

A screen graphic with a clock ticking down the minutes gave way to a photo montage of the biggest news stories of the past decade and an announcer saying the new channel would be "setting the news agenda."

"It's Nov. 15th, a new era in television news," its anchor said.

The channel quickly jumped to live feeds from various regions — first Gaza, then Sudan's Darfur region, then
Iran and Zimbabwe.

Al-Jazeera, which is bankrolled by Qatar's royal family, said its signal would reach 80 million households with cable and satellite TV, mainly in the Middle East and Europe. It hopes to steal viewers from CNN and the British Broadcasting Corp. by giving the world's 1 billion English speakers news from a non-Western perspective.

[leftchick]

1. you need a link

here is a link to their TV website....

http://english.aljazeera.net/News

[meegbear]

2. An interesting tidbit for News Hounds ...

Hypocri$y Gone Wild: Rupert Murdoch Jump$ into Bed With Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera's English-language news channel is set to debut tomorrow (November 15, 2006). Per the article linked to above, it will be available on Sky TV (in Italy and Great Britain) which is owned by News Corp., the parent company of Fox News.

Fox News regularly vilifies Al Jazeera, claiming it is in essence a terrorist organization, fomenting hatred toward the United States.

http://www.newshounds.us/2006/11/14/hypocriy_gone_wild_rupert_murdoch_jump_into_bed_with_al_jazeera.php

[dipsydoodle]

6. They are only able to draw the comparison with Fux

and not with Sky News which is also Murdoch owned. Sky News is not materially different from our BBC or ITV news channels. Would seem you may only have the oddity in the USA.

[Vorta]

3. giving the world's 1 billion English speakers news from a non-Western perspective.

There is comedic potential here. I used to love it when Benny Hill would mock German or Spanish TV news.

[SoftUnderbelly]

4. interesting

i would like to see it, but we dont have sky digital in our house. its a bit of a coup for them to get david frost, it wasnt long ago he was hosting the main sunday morning politcal program on the bbc. big name recognition will certainly help them get people curious about it here in britain.

[ovidsen]

5. You've got to pay to play

Faux news paid cable operators $10 and up per subscriber (do the math!) to get clearance when it started up 10 years ago. Even then, NYC cable refused to carry it for several years (Time Warner does not like Rupert Murdoch) until lawyers basically forced it to. A lot of people in the industry say Faux wouldn't be what it is today if it weren't for this largesse.

Right now, only a handful of providers offier the Arabic version of al-Jazeera. The biggest is probably DISH TV. But it's STILL not saying if it's going to clear the English version.

I'd love to see what Al-Jazeera says, but unless the emir of Qatar coughs up a lot more dough, I'm afraid I'll only be able to do it by computer.

[dipsydoodle]

7. Thanks for that

I'd noticed on BBC News this morning GMT that it was due to start transmitting later today but did not mention the time. I've found I can watch it using the 56k link through Realplayer which for me becomes instant as I'm on a 10mb connection anyway. If any UK Du'ers are readng this there's no sign of it being added to Ntl Cable yet - Sky dish whatever only.