Al Jazeera English to be seen on Canadian cable and satellite

[Newsjock]

Source: The Globe and Mail

After months of waiting, the English-language version of Mideast news network Al Jazeera is coming to Canadian television.

The 24-hour news channel announced Monday that it has reached an agreement with distributors Bell Canada Enterprises Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Vidéotron Ltée to be carried on each company’s cable and satellite services.

Al Jazeera English, which launched more than three years ago, can be seen in almost 200-million households in more than 100 countries around the globe. AJE won regulatory approval to broadcast in Canada in November. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission noted in its decision that the network “will expand the diversity of editorial points of view in the Canadian broadcasting system.”

... “We are extremely pleased that AJE’s groundbreaking news and programming is now available in Canada, one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world,” said the channel’s managing director, Tony Burman, who worked as Editor in Chief of CBC News before joining Al Jazeera English. “Over the past year, I have had the opportunity to travel throughout Canada and hear first-hand the great demand for the channel … we hope to announce additional carriage deals in the near future.”

Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/al-jazeera-gets-distribution-deal/article1556399/

[ZeitgeistObserver]

1. At last! This is great news!

[kgnu_fan]

2. we want it here, too- superb journalism

[Douglas Carpenter]

3. when it becomes widely available in the United States that will be a great step forward

[cvoogt]

4. It already is available in the US

It's on Verizon FIOS, for one.

[kittykitty]

7. It's on Direct TV--MHz Network n/t

[Chulanowa]

5. Watching Al-Jazeera is like going back in time

And I mean that in a good way.

I remember when I was a kid and my folks would turn on the nightly news, and Tom Brokaw would be on, and I'd be bored out of my mind with stories coming out of Beirut or Czechoslovakia or China or somewhere - 'cause I was a kid and it wasn't cartoons - but now I turn on the news and it's all about celebrity and soundbites.

I turn on Al-jazeera (thank you internet) and I see stories about Damascus and the crisis in Greece and events unfolding in West Africa, actual news.

[ShortnFiery]

6. Al Jazeera English is available with RT, France24 and EuroNews with *Expanded Digital Cable TV.*

I have it on now. :-)