Al Jazeera Is Now Scrambled
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Globecast WorldTV still says after the 8th it won't be available. Does anyone have a Globecast receiver to check whether it has disappeared or not? Since Globecast is both a DTH company and an uplinker, may be their DTH service can't have it, but they still can uplink it FTA (talk about grasping for straws, LOL!).
I believe it will occur on the 20th. The launch of their Neutered Network.
Hope they air a G)!(&*^ (&JH GY*& ^$$!! report near the END.
Hope they air a G)!(&*^ (&JH GY*& ^$$!! report near the END.
Open minded people, those that like to see both sides of a story and determine-their own opinions- for themselves, can only hope.
I think it's ironic that one of their commercials today prided themselves on being different from those "other news organizations" that gloss over real world events.
Did Al Jazeera ever promote Al Jazeera's availability to potential viewers ? Did they ever tell people how to receive it via an advertising campaign ? I seem to recall mainstream news stories about the network saying Al Jazeera English had extremely limited availability in the USA -- never mentioning they were easily viewable on satellite . Wasn't this Al Jazeera's cue to do something about this lack of awareness ? And why is Al Jazeera English leaving Globecast if their new product is entirely separate ? Or would the old one make the new look silly ?
Good points, it makes me wonder how come if Al Jazeera English was not widely distributed via cable now they think that people will demand Al Jazeera America (as it was very well put above an Al Jazeera neutered network by all the looks so far).
As the article quoted below mentions, they have not promoted the new network.
I agree with you, I believe it doesn´t make sense to pull out Al Jazeera English when it is clearly a different thing than the new Al Jazeera America.
"Al Jazeera America sets its own course.
The problem is it’s not clear that anyone will watch
The news channel also hasn’t done much to drum up interest in advance of the Aug. 20 launch — beyond a few press releases, there’s been scant promotion; an executive management team has only recently been brought on; and the on-air hires aren’t exactly households names to most Americans.
“Despite what they may say, there is no expectation that they’re going to make a profit. They just want to be noticed.”
If the audience for a channel like Al Jazeera America does exist, AJAM so far has done little to court it."
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/al-jazeera-america-sets-own-course-95144.html#ixzz2b8EGxaDb
I don't think they've advertised it much, but the website does list Galaxy 19 and the options for receiving the channel:
http://www.aljazeera.com/watchaje/20091022172112636517.html
Most of AJE's campaign was built around its livestream. The new channel is a serious attempt to build the Al Jazeera brand in the U.S. Cable carriers haven't traditionally touched it because there's an assumption that Americans aren't interested in foreign news and a throw over from the "terrorist news channel" image around the invasion of Iraq. (Some previous coverage of Al Jazeera has shown the real opposition some cable operators faced when they tried to offer the channel because of this. People who had never seen it campaigned hard against it.)
Back to point one, building brand in the U.S. is all about cable and Dish/DirecTV. As much as we love FTA, it's the traditional pay TV systems where brands are built and money is made. It looks like Al Jazeera has gone that route, investing considerable money in launching a new channel that is tailored for their target American viewer. It's not such a bad idea considering the size of the U.S. TV market.
The purchase of Current TV wasn't about buying a channel as much as it was about buying a position on cable TV networks across the country. As part of the deals they are having to do to court the cable operators to keep the channel, there was probably a clause about competition from free-to-air availability and that's why it's gone from World TV. Although as noted, just because it's not part of World TV, it doesn't necessarily follow that the channel will disappear from satellite. It will live on in the grey zone between official and unofficial.
There are a lot of places, mostly in DC, that will want access to AJE, so it might mean the channel remains on Intelsat 9 C-band but is dropped from ku. C-band also covers the entire continent so scrambling or dropping both feeds would mean cutting AJE from the entire Americas just to satisfy US cable operators. I think that would be a bold step for them to take.
The reason why Al Jazeera did that is because they want focus more on the impact of war in the Middle East and Central Asia. That's why Al Jazeera is perfectly balanced. The critics who were against Al Jazeera didn't really watch that channel, they just made their own opinions why Al Jazeera is believed to be linked with terrorists. Here's a great article from Satdirectory, written back in 2006:
http://www.satdirectory.com/--aljazeera.html
That's the same for FashionTV HD. It used to be on Galaxy 17 Ku-band but the only way to watch it is on Intelsat 805 C-band. I don't think it will happen to Al Jazeera English.
Quoting article below
"The channel is still by far the most popular news channel in the Middle East, but was widely criticized for heavily covering the uprising against Moammar Gadhafi in Libya, an enemy of Qatar, while giving short shrift to the protests in Qatar's fellow Gulf monarchy of Bahrain.
"It has always been an arm of Qatari foreign policy," said Simon Henderson, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute.
Mr. Al Shihabi fiercely denies this charge, pointing to the dozens of journalism awards that Al Jazeera English, a global English-language channel, has won since its launch in 2006.
The U.S. channel is part of an international expansion of Al Jazeera that also includes local channels—either launched or planned—in France, Turkey and the Balkans. That push has gained steam since a member of Qatar's royal family became the network's director general in 2011, succeeding a Palestinian journalist known for his expertise in Middle Eastern affairs.
As a speck of a country with less than 300,000 citizens in a population of nearly two million and 14% of the world's natural-gas reserves, Qatar craves influence above all, particularly in the U.S., as a means to security, say analysts.
"They want to be on the map because they realize that their own success, stability and security is tied to the perception of them being global players," said Emile Hokayem, a Middle East analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. "They don't want anyone to ask, 'What is Qatar?' "
A spokesman for the Qatari Consulate in New York declined to comment. Mr. Al Shihabi said, "You are linking two things which I am not able to link in my mind."
For years, Al Jazeera tried to make sure Americans wouldn't have to ask this question by lobbying to get national U.S. cable carriage for Al Jazeera English. But they never made it past a few local markets. Mr. Al Shihabi believes that was less because of any reputation Al Jazeera might have had for anti-American coverage during the second Bush administration—such a branding was "not that damaging," he said. The bigger issue was the organization's naiveté about an independent channel's poor prospects in the U.S. cable landscape.
"Maybe we didn't understand the dynamic and the business case and the pressure on cable operators," Mr. Al Shihabi said."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324049504578545822660638706.html
"The channel is still by far the most popular news channel in the Middle East, but was widely criticized for heavily covering the uprising against Moammar Gadhafi in Libya, an enemy of Qatar, while giving short shrift to the protests in Qatar's fellow Gulf monarchy of Bahrain.
"It has always been an arm of Qatari foreign policy," said Simon Henderson, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute.
Mr. Al Shihabi fiercely denies this charge, pointing to the dozens of journalism awards that Al Jazeera English, a global English-language channel, has won since its launch in 2006.
The U.S. channel is part of an international expansion of Al Jazeera that also includes local channels—either launched or planned—in France, Turkey and the Balkans. That push has gained steam since a member of Qatar's royal family became the network's director general in 2011, succeeding a Palestinian journalist known for his expertise in Middle Eastern affairs.
As a speck of a country with less than 300,000 citizens in a population of nearly two million and 14% of the world's natural-gas reserves, Qatar craves influence above all, particularly in the U.S., as a means to security, say analysts.
"They want to be on the map because they realize that their own success, stability and security is tied to the perception of them being global players," said Emile Hokayem, a Middle East analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. "They don't want anyone to ask, 'What is Qatar?' "
A spokesman for the Qatari Consulate in New York declined to comment. Mr. Al Shihabi said, "You are linking two things which I am not able to link in my mind."
For years, Al Jazeera tried to make sure Americans wouldn't have to ask this question by lobbying to get national U.S. cable carriage for Al Jazeera English. But they never made it past a few local markets. Mr. Al Shihabi believes that was less because of any reputation Al Jazeera might have had for anti-American coverage during the second Bush administration—such a branding was "not that damaging," he said. The bigger issue was the organization's naiveté about an independent channel's poor prospects in the U.S. cable landscape.
"Maybe we didn't understand the dynamic and the business case and the pressure on cable operators," Mr. Al Shihabi said."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324049504578545822660638706.html
got an email today from al Jazeera. they are on dish channel 215 when they come up. I don't know if I will be able to get it though. I do get rt with my home basic subscription. charlie
I saw an ad promoting RT on Comcast the other day and was surprised that, given the years of foot-dragging in getting BBC World on cable, it had suddenly added RT as well.
I went to the advertised channel -- 103 here -- and indeed RT is 24/7 on Comcast here. Then I noticed the channel ID, which hasn't been changed and still reads "LEASE," so I guess RT has decided to start buying time on cable networks if it cannot get carriage. A good option if you have deep pockets.
I went to the advertised channel -- 103 here -- and indeed RT is 24/7 on Comcast here. Then I noticed the channel ID, which hasn't been changed and still reads "LEASE," so I guess RT has decided to start buying time on cable networks if it cannot get carriage. A good option if you have deep pockets.
I still smile when I think how their Russia Today's former branding morphed into RT to obviously hide their Russian bias. For me, RT is the equivalent of Radio Moscow back in the 1970s (blatently anti-American) whereas AJ is a more neutral reporting station. I watch AJ for news and RT for a laugh.
I suspect they liked the look of most presenters on RT. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
I'll agree with that. Freedom of the press must also be under further attack in Russia. Last year, when RT first reported a fairly balanced view on a controversial law (I was shocked), I went to their website and despite the mob of commenters supporting the government in St. Petersburg, I had posted something along the lines of, "oh, I see... this isn't just about the issue, it's the fear that after freedom of expression goes, the freedom of the press could go next." Several thumbs up and the comment stayed. There were even a couple of more stories in the following weeks that at least hinted at criticizing the government on the matter. This year, RT dropped all opposing views on the issue and went with the official government line (or mostly, just ignored the problem). When I attempted several comments on the very same law (now extended into Moscow and the whole of Russia) on their website, those comments were immediately deleted each time. It seems with RT that it's great to criticize America, but no longer cool to criticize the Motherland.
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