Al Jazeera gets breakthrough in U.S. TV market
Barcelona News.Net
Friday 26th June, 2009

Al Jazeera English will be seen in the U.S. from July 1st.

The Qatar-based TV network is well known throughout the Arab world but has been shunned by U.S. TV and cable networks due to its graphic coverage of events in the Middle East.

The network has come under fire from the U.S. government, in particularly the military, but more so under the previous Bush administration.
The network has now inked a deal with a cable TV company in Washington DC area, according to a report by Arabian Business on Friday.

“On July 1 we are going to launch the first operation in cable distribution in the United States,” Al Jazeera's director general, Wadah Khanfar, told the publication in an interview.
“I can tell you that on July 1 we are going to launch an agreement with a Washington DC based company that has around 2.3 million subscribers.”
The English language version of the Qatari news channel is available in 140 million homes in forty countries, including Israel, but has been unable to enter America, the world's most important English-language market.

Local operators in Burlington, Vermont and Toledo, Ohio have been the only two exceptions to date.

Many Americans associate the Al Jazeera brand with the Arabic news channel's airing of video tapes from Osama Bin Laden, and US cable operators have been reluctant to add Al Jazeera English to their line-ups amid allegations that it is a “mouthpiece for terrorists”.
However, Khanfar said a more benevolent political climate means that the channel will be able to sign distribution deals across the U.S. in the second half of this year.

“I think the atmosphere is changing now. We have negotiations taking place with many cable companies in the United States and Canada and I hope that very soon we are going to hear a lot of good news,” he told Arabian Business.
Al Jazeera English began broadcasting in November 2006, after hiring a number of well known international journalists, including veteran UK broadcaster Sir David Frost.