Monday 15 November 2021

AL JAZEERA ENGLISH, UNDERSTANDING THE MIDDLE EAST

Today, The Grandma has been watching TV. She has chosen Al Jazeera English to be informed about the Middle East.

This interesting channel launched worldwide on a day like today in 2006, and it has become one of the greatest television news channel of the world.

Al Jazeera English (AJE) is a television news channel broadcast to the world by the Al Jazeera Media Network.

It is the first English-language news channel to be headquartered in the Middle East. Instead of being run centrally, news management rotates between broadcasting centres in Doha and London.

The channel was launched on 15 November 2006, at 12:00 PM GMT. It had aimed to begin broadcasting in June 2006 but had to postpone its launch because its HDTV technology was not yet ready.

The channel was due to be called Al Jazeera International, but the name was changed nine months before the launch because one of the channel's backers argued that the original Arabic-language channel already had an international scope.

The channel was anticipated to reach around 40 million households, but it far exceeded that launch target, reaching 80 million homes.

More information: Al Jazeera

By 2009, the service could be viewed in every major European market and was available to 130 million homes in over 100 countries via cable and satellite, according to a spokeswoman for the network in Washington.

The channel, however, has poor penetration in the American market, where it has been carried by only one satellite service and a few cable networks.

Al Jazeera English later began a campaign to enter the North American market, including a dedicated website. It became available to some cable subscribers in New York in August 2011, having previously been available as an option for some viewers in Washington, D.C., Ohio and Los Angeles.

The channel primarily reaches the United States via its live online streaming. It is readily available on most major Canadian television providers, including Rogers and Bell Satellite TV after the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission approved the channel for distribution in Canada on 26 November 2009.

Al Jazeera English and Iran's state-run Press TV were the only international English-language television broadcasters with journalists reporting from inside both Gaza and Israel during the 2008-2009 Israel-Gaza conflict. Foreign press access to Gaza has been limited via either Egypt or Israel. However, Al Jazeera's reporters Ayman Mohyeldin and Sherine Tadros were already inside Gaza when the conflict began, and the network's coverage was often compared to CNN's initial coverage from inside Baghdad in the early days of the 1991 Gulf War.

The channel may also be viewed online. It recommends online viewing at its own website or at its channel on YouTube. 

Al Jazeera English HD launched in the United Kingdom on Freeview on 26 November 2013, and began streaming in HD on YouTube in 2015.

On 1 January 2020, Al Jazeera English debuted a new major graphics package for the first time since the channel launched to coincide with a remodelled main Doha studio, the last main studio of the channel's three in Doha, London, and Washington D.C. to receive an upgrade since the channel's launch in 2006.

On 3 January 2013, Al Jazeera Media Network announced that it had purchased Current TV in the United States and would be launching an American news channel. 60% of the channel's programming would be produced in America, while 40% would be from Al Jazeera English. That was later changed at the request of pay-television providers to almost 100% American programming.

Regardless, Al Jazeera America maintained a close working relationship with Al Jazeera English. The channel aired Newshour in the morning and midday hours and cut to live Al Jazeera English coverage of large breaking international news stories outside that. Al Jazeera English programmes Witness, Earthrise, The Listening Post, Talk To Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera Correspondent and 101 East along with Al Jazeera Investigates regularly aired on Al Jazeera America.

On 13 January 2016, Al Jazeera America announced that the network would be terminated on 12 April 2016, citing the economic landscape.

In 2014, Al Jazeera moved its UK London operations including its newsroom, studios and shows from Knightsbridge to its new space on floor 16 of The Shard.

More information: Youtube-Al Jazeera English

The last day of broadcasting from the Knightsbridge studios was September, 12th 2014. The space was officially opened on 3 November 2014, with the first Newshour broadcast on 10 October 2014. The new facility is capable of running an entire channel, independently of the Doha hub.

In 2013 Al Jazeera Media Network began planning a new channel called Al Jazeera UK. If launched, the British channel would broadcast for five hours during prime time as cut-in UK content aired on Al Jazeera English. It would in effect function much like RT UK and RT America does in the United States. 

Formed in 2010, in its own words: the role of Al Jazeera Investigations is not to report the news, but to make the news.

The Unit, is based at the Network headquarters in Doha, but also has representation in London and Washington, D.C. The unit is an Al Jazeera Media Network asset and its reports appear equally on the other channels, tailored appropriately for the relevant language and audience. The documentaries are presented as specials under their own strand: Al Jazeera Investigates.

More information: Twitter-Al Jazeera

The channel is available in many countries, mostly via satellite, sometimes via cable. The channel is also available online. Al Jazeera English provides a free HD stream on its website for unlimited viewing. It is available free worldwide. They also provide a free stream on their YouTube page.

Previously, before Al Jazeera provided an official stream, a low quality RealVideo stream was available for viewing.

Al Jazeera news segments are frequently included on the American public television program Worldfocus.

Al Jazeera can also be streamed on any iOS or Android device with an internet connection using a free application.

As of May 2017, Al Jazeera English has won more than 150 prizes, medals and awards.

More information: Instagram-Al Jazeera


I view Al Jazeera as a very serious journalistic outfit.
They have proven to observers around the world
that they are serious and objective.
They will have to, at a P.R. level,
prove to the American public that that is the case.
And I think that over time they will succeed at doing that.

Eliot Spitzer

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