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The first few minutes of the broadcast:
The English language channel has officially launched today, 15/11/2006 12PM GMT. Broadcasting from 4 broadcast centers, London, Washington DC, Kuala Lumpur and Doha. Station promises to be the voice of the south, providing a 360 degree view of the world.
First impression… impressed! Although some of the themes looks like those of the BBC, but one can understand that a lot of Al Jazeera staff were recruited from there only. No harm done!
However, the reports were fair and objective (so far). Yet, it looks to have more focus on Africa, which is something new to me. We hardly know about our neighbors, and thanks to the local media and the international multimedia stream.
The bad news is the coverage. While they say that it covers a wide areas in Europe, in US, it will only be available to two million viewers through sat dishes due to what they claim to be a long row ahead of them with regards to booking their space on the American cable TV networks, which looks to be the dominant approach for TV channels in US. However, Al Jazeera claims that this issue will be sorted soon.
OTOH, Al Jazeera relaunched their English website at the same time of launching Al Jazeera International. As for the website, honestly, very disappointed. I was expecting to see a lot more than what they have there. So far, the only new thing I can see are live TV broadcast and the RSS feed (general one). The website remains undiscoverable by feed readers and can only add the feed to your feed reader manually. One more thing is the theme. It is very… hmmm… basic! I have seen personal blogs look more professional than aljazeera.net/english.
Anyway, maybe they have something under their hood, so we will wait and see.
Well, let's hope them all the best… and congratulations, Al Jazeera!
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{ 5 } Comments
I woudn't be so optimistic: I've found and interesting article "Pro-Israeli editors seek to influence Al-Jazeera International English Satellite TV"
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5735.shtml
by Khalid Amayreh
Haitham,
I'M ON!!!! My internet is through my cable company so that could be how I did it but you can get it over the internet here http://www.vdc.com/
and I'm on the West Coast. HALLELUJAH!!! It costs $8.95 a month.
Why do I have to pay for a news network that is against the west?
I get CNN,CTV,CBC and others for free! DUH!
kimmy,
First, you don't have to pay to watch Aljazeera. You can watch it live from there website at http://aljazeera.net/english
Second, who said that they are against West? Contrary to that, watching it for the last few days now, I don't see it as an Arab TV. I'm not saying it is pro-this or anti-that yet, but I don't like what I see. It is still early to judge though… will give it some time before reviewing it again!
Haitham,
Sorry, but I like to watch live news. CNN, CBC, and CTV is my mainstay in Canada and it is free on my sattelite (sort of). I know that they are biased. I also know that the medias over here don't want Al-Jazeera on their systems.
I am cheap (and poor) but I want as much news that I can absorb.
If my tv provider would offer Al-Jazeera I would drop other packages to get it.
Others than that, your link gave me info I haven't recieved over here.
Thank You.
{ 1 } Trackback
[...] Haitham Sabbah found the new channel impressive. "First impression impressed! Although some of the themes looks like those of the BBC, but one can understand that a lot of Al Jazeera staff were recruited from there only. No harm done! However, the reports were fair and objective (so far). Yet, it looks to have more focus on Africa, which is something new to me. We hardly know about our neighbors, and thanks to the local media and the international multimedia stream. The bad news is the coverage," he wrote. [...]
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