BBC's Arabic channel to take on Al Jazeera
Guardian News
In One corner stands the BBC World Service, the corporation's venerable 70-yearold voice to the world backed by £239 million of taxpayers' money. In the other the upstart satellite TV channel Al Jazeera, barely a decade old, bankrolled from the bottomless reserves of the emir of Qatar.
The two broadcasters are going head to head in a battle for control of the new frontier for global TV -- the Middle East. While Al Jazeera is finalising plans for an English channel (star presenter: Sir David Frost), the BBC has unveiled its counterattack: a new £19 million-a-year channel to be broadcast to the region in Arabic.
This is a fight not only for ratings but to gain the hearts and minds of viewers in the Middle East. The World Service director, Nigel Chapman, said the launch of its first television channel would increase its influence in the region and dismissed fears that viewers would see it as a mouthpiece for western interests.
"Most people in the Arab world are very clear that, despite being funded by the UK taxpayer, they see the BBC as an inde pendent broadcasting force and have done for over 60 years," said Chapman. He argued that with the growing influence of Al Jazeera and its rivals and the near-universal access to satellite TV, the BBC's radio and online services risked being outflanked.
It comes at a time when Al Jazeera, the 24-hour Arabic news channel, is expanding rapidly and gearing up to launch an English language service in the west next March. That will give it a year's headstart on the BBC's mirror-image launch, which is scheduled for 2007. The BBC's new operation, which has been under discussion for two years, will mean cutbacks elsewhere at the Foreign Office-funded broadcaster and the closure of 10 radio services around the world. BBC broadcasts in Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Kazakh, Polish, Slovak, Slovene and Thai will cease by March.
According to some estimates Al Jazeera, which shot to prominence as the preferred outlet for Osama bin Laden's video addresses after September 11, 2001, now has a global audience that rivals the BBC's.
The irony is that Al Jazeera launched out of the ashes of the BBC's last attempt to build a presence in the region. A commercial joint venture, launched in 1994, foundered two years later. Many of the disappointed staff went on to launch Al Jazeera.
In One corner stands the BBC World Service, the corporation's venerable 70-yearold voice to the world backed by £239 million of taxpayers' money. In the other the upstart satellite TV channel Al Jazeera, barely a decade old, bankrolled from the bottomless reserves of the emir of Qatar.
The two broadcasters are going head to head in a battle for control of the new frontier for global TV -- the Middle East. While Al Jazeera is finalising plans for an English channel (star presenter: Sir David Frost), the BBC has unveiled its counterattack: a new £19 million-a-year channel to be broadcast to the region in Arabic.
This is a fight not only for ratings but to gain the hearts and minds of viewers in the Middle East. The World Service director, Nigel Chapman, said the launch of its first television channel would increase its influence in the region and dismissed fears that viewers would see it as a mouthpiece for western interests.
"Most people in the Arab world are very clear that, despite being funded by the UK taxpayer, they see the BBC as an inde pendent broadcasting force and have done for over 60 years," said Chapman. He argued that with the growing influence of Al Jazeera and its rivals and the near-universal access to satellite TV, the BBC's radio and online services risked being outflanked.
It comes at a time when Al Jazeera, the 24-hour Arabic news channel, is expanding rapidly and gearing up to launch an English language service in the west next March. That will give it a year's headstart on the BBC's mirror-image launch, which is scheduled for 2007. The BBC's new operation, which has been under discussion for two years, will mean cutbacks elsewhere at the Foreign Office-funded broadcaster and the closure of 10 radio services around the world. BBC broadcasts in Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Kazakh, Polish, Slovak, Slovene and Thai will cease by March.
According to some estimates Al Jazeera, which shot to prominence as the preferred outlet for Osama bin Laden's video addresses after September 11, 2001, now has a global audience that rivals the BBC's.
The irony is that Al Jazeera launched out of the ashes of the BBC's last attempt to build a presence in the region. A commercial joint venture, launched in 1994, foundered two years later. Many of the disappointed staff went on to launch Al Jazeera.
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