Al-Jazeera English network not on Dish
Joyzelle Davis, Rocky Mountain News
Published November 15, 2006 at midnight
Al-Jazeera's English-language news service launches worldwide today, but EchoStar's Dish Network won't be carrying the spinoff of the controversial Arab channel.
Neither, for that matter, will any other major U.S. cable or satellite providers. Instead, viewers can watch a streaming version on the Interenet at english.aljazeera.net.
Dish was considered the most likely to carry the fledgling network because the satellite-TV provider offers Al-Jazeera's Arab-language version, as well as the largest number of Arabic channels. But negotiations reportedly fell apart because Dish wanted to carry the English-language version on its Arab-language tier, while Al-Jazeera wanted to reach a larger chunk of Dish's 12.8 million subscribers.
Heather Black, a spokeswoman for Douglas County-based EchoStar, said the company doesn't comment on negotiations.
Al-Jazeera gained the attention of America following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The Qatar-based news channel often is the first recipient of Osama bin Laden's videotaped messages and has been criticized for showing graphic images from Iraq. But the 10-year-old network also has won praise for offering dissenting views, a rarity in a region where most media are heavily censored.
Last year, Al-Jazeera announced plans to launch an English-language version to offer a non-Western perspective, hiring British broadcasting legend David Frost and former ABC News Nightline correspondent Dave Marash. Its launch date was repeatedly delayed due to technical problems involved in broadcasting in high definition from four global bureaus.
Al-Jazeera English, as the network is called, received a better reception overseas, where it will reach nearly 80 million cable- and satellite-TV households - double its original target.
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