Al Jazeera English is looking to expand its reach and gain access to the US market:
The English-language offshoot of Al Jazeera, the Arabic television
news network, is pushing for a "breakthrough" that would make the
channel available to American TV viewers and help it move beyond a
turbulent start-up phase, according to its new managing director,
Tony Burman.
The hiring of Burman, a former editor in chief of the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation, was announced last week by Al Jazeera
English, whose first year and a half of broadcasting has been marked by
intense scrutiny of the coverage and the recent defection of several
high-profile Western journalists who had been recruited to lend
credibility to the channel.
Al Jazeera English, which is part of Al Jazeera Network, based in
Qatar, also announced distribution agreements last week in markets as
far-flung as Portugal, Ukraine and Vietnam, increasing its potential
audience to 110 million homes. Conspicuously absent, however, was the
United States, where Al Jazeera is still largely unavailable on
television. Viewers can watch it on the Web through a deal with
YouTube, the online video service.
In a U.S. market of 300 million people, with hundreds of
pay-television services, "the idea that certain channels would
effectively be banned is medieval," Burman said.
Al Jazeera English is not actually banned, of course, but the
reputation of its Arabic sibling as the preferred outlet for videos
from Osama bin Laden has made the English-language version too hot to
handle for some U.S. cable operators. A lack of space on crowded cable
systems has also made it difficult for operators to offer Al
Jazeera English.
... Burman said Al Jazeera also planned to invest in new bureaus; it
already shares more than 60 bureaus with its Arabic sister
organization. And the channel plans "more provocative" current affairs
programming and investigative journalism, he said.
"Our goal is to go in the opposite direction to so many other news
organizations which are, sadly, cutting back on their coverage of the
world," said Burman, who left the Canadian public broadcaster last year.
In an effort to control costs, he said, there will be more
collaboration between the Arabic and English services, with news crews
sharing equipment, for example. Burman insisted that the channels would
still be able to keep separate identities.
"The reality is that Al Jazeera and Al Jazeera English are two different channels that cater to different audiences," he said.