Ehab Al Shihabi and Dr Mustefa Souag ... hopes high
DOHA: A majority of the Americans are not happy with the way news is covered and presented by local channels and the four-month-old Al Jazeera America (AJAM) hopes to cash in on this disenchantment, a senior official of the channel said yesterday.
Launched on August 20 with access to 42m households, the channel has expanded its reach to 55m households in four months, with half a million viewers daily, according to Ehab Al Shihabi, Interim CEO of AJAM.
“When we launched AJAM four months ago, there was strong lobbying to stop distributors (cable operators) from showing the channel. We have overcome this challenge and recently signed a contract with leading distributor Time Warner Cable, which has helped expand our reach to 55m households,” Al Shihabi said at a media round table at Al Jazeera headquarters.
“The (negative) perceptions about Al Jazeera among the American audience are also changing gradually,” he added.
Dr Mustefa Souag, acting Director General, Al Jazeera Media Network, said AJAM is still in its infancy but has great potential for growth in the US market. “We are expecting to expand the reach of the channel to 75m households next year.”
Other leading channels like CNN, Fox and CNBC have achieved such growth in many years. CNN reaches 100m households with 8m viewers daily, added the official.
The network also hopes to tap the potential of the US market to generate advertisement revenue for AJAM “without compromising the values and standard of Al Jazeera” to reduce “our reliance on state budget’”.
Citing surveys by the network in the US, Al Shihabi claimed that AJAM was filling a “void” left by US channels. “More than 65 per cent of the Americans are not happy with the coverage of news in the US. AJAM is trying to fill this gap with in-depth investigations and covering real issues concerning the Americans and more focus as international news.”
Souag laughed off reports that the viewership of Al Jazeera is declining in the Arab world as part of a well-orchestrated campaign against the network. Al Jazeera Arabic remains the leading channel in the region with about 24.7m viewers and Al Jazeera English is gaining popularity in Europe, Asia and Africa, he said. He said the network is working to expand the reach of Al Jazeera English and Arabic in India but has no plans to launch a channel in an Indian language. He hinted that the proposed French channel will take more time to materialise. The Peninsula
