Media

Al Jazeera looks to US for viewers

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.

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.

Morocco bans Al-Jazeera's North Africa bulletin

The Moroccan authorities have ordered a halt to Al-Jazeera's daily North African news programme broadcast from its Rabat office, and have cancelled the channel's license to use its broadcasting equipment in Morocco.

The decision on 6 May has forced the channel to air its North African news from Doha, a decision that might hinder the channel's ability to air balanced televised interviews with North African figures on various different political, economic and cultural issues.

New weekly business magazine for the Gulf

The Gulf, a new international weekly business magazine covering the six countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), made its debut earlier this month. Published by the international division of the Bahrain-based Al Hilal Group, The Gulf aims to fill a gap in the market for authoritative reporting and commentary on the Gulf region, focusing on business, financial and economic developments.

Qatar: Broadcasting director requests more FM channels

Qatar Radio and TV Corporation's Technical Bureau director, Mohamed al-Emadi has said Qatar submitted requests to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to establish some 54 new FM channels for commercial use. He said this was in addition to the 15 existing channels, which were currently registered with the ITU.

Abu Dhabi aims to become multi-media centre

Abu Dhabi Media Company seeks new partners in digital creation and distribution in the Middle East.

The determination of the capital of the United Arab Emirates to become a multi-media centre has been further underlined with the Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC) becoming gold sponsor of MECOM 2008, the Middle East Communications Exhibition and Conference. The ADMC - formed last year with Abu Dhabi TV, Abu Dhabi Radio and Emirates FM, Al Ittihad newspaper and a number of magazines - is spearheading the move. It has since signed a US$1 billion partnership deal with Hollywood's biggest film studio Warner Brothers and launched The National, an English-language quality daily newspaper.