Al Jazeera English Finds Cable Carriage Through NCE Broadcaster
Washington-area noncommercial broadcaster MHz began carrying Al Jazeera English on one of its multicast streams. The move gave the 24-hour international news service over- the-air and pay-TV distribution to the region’s 2.3 million TV viewers. That could be a big boost for a fledgling network that has struggled to land a spot on cable and direct broadcast satellite lineups in the U.S. (CD Nov 20/06 p5). “We hope this is the first step into breaking into many of the other major markets,” said Kimeran Daley, head of Al Jazeera English’s U.S. distribution.
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As a noncommercial broadcaster and subsidiary of Commonwealth Public Broadcasting, local pay-TV distributors carry all 10 of MHz’s multicast signals from its two Northern Virginia stations, WNVC-DT Fairfax and WNVT-DT Goldvein. Comcast carries MHz5 -- the spot now occupied by Al Jazeera English on channel 275 in the area, according to its channel lineup.
Al Jazeera English will work for similar arrangements with commercial and noncommercial stations in other markets, Daley said. “We've had discussions, some that date back two years, some that are more recently picking up momentum,” she said. “I do hope this MHz breakthrough will help to accelerate some other conversations we're having in other parts of the country and other carriers.”
The network will run the same sponsorship messages on MHz that it runs elsewhere, but they will conform to FCC rules about noncommercial educational ads, said Daley. All of MHz’s programming partners adhere to such rules, said Stephanie Misar, MHz marketing director. “They are all absent any advertising or meet the requirements to be able to be aired in the U.S.”
Despite Al Jazeera English’s slow path to U.S. distribution, it probably won’t seek any relief from the FCC to help it gain pay-TV carriage, Daley said. “It’s far to early to even contemplate something like that,” she said. “I haven’t seen that approach be terribly effective with other people.” Plus, that approach can alienate distributors, she said. “My hope is that we can foster some strong and long- term relationships with the satellite and cable operators.” - - Josh Wein