Al Jazeera Buying Current?

[Mario500]

Also, the Bright House system where I live only has BBC World News, and nothing else among the list. Usually, what goes for Time Warner Cable also goes for Bright House.

Time Warner Cable has a legal stake in Bright House Networks.

 

[EJ204]

I have Time Warner in North NJ. I'm lucky that my apartment building made a deal with TW, so we get almost everything they offer, including HBO and Showtime, but not the other Premium channels. We also get a few but not all Ethnic channels.

My brother also has TW a couple of towns away. But he has a lesser package so he only gets the first 200 channels, plus Music Choice. That still gives him BBC News, CNN-I, RT and CCTV News.

I'd guess RT and CCTV News are free to American cable systems for their propaganda value. Maybe even France 24, CNC and NHK World, even though TW has them on upper channels. Current had been on Channel 103 up till last night.

And my dad, who has Comcast in North NJ, gets something called Euro News, which is another international news channel in English, based in France as well. That's part of his basic service.

 

[johnnya2k6]

Dish Network's only international news channels are RT and CCTV News. That could change now that Current will be the property of Al Jazeera.

 

[chime]

Well Johnny-and-All if you buy an International package
on Dish, you can add an English-Language group of News
channels, which includes France24, which I have had
since April. Just about all their International
packages have little English in general, so we picked a
most economical Frence package, where I could then add
these news items for I think $5. I get CNN-I on
Uverse, so among the 2 services I have many of these
news offerings, but I sure hope both will carry this
new Al-Jazeera America

 

[nathannah]

Re: REPORT: ALJAZEERA WANTS CURRENT

This is very interesting because the only way AJ's English channel does air in the New York market is through a time buy of most of the schedule of WRNN's DT2 subchannel, and TWC has to carry the service as part of must-carry.

IIRC, must-carry rules require a cable or satellite distributor to carry only one feed of the channel, so TWC's carriage has been voluntary. I'm not familiar with WRNN's programming - perhaps Al Jazeera's English-language feed was better than anything else WRNN was carrying.

It's much more complicated than that. A company called RISE run by WRNN 'bought' the time on the DT2 channel to carry Mega TV, a Spanish-language network which from their schedule is basically "Ion in 2005, but in Espanol" (aka lots of infomercials and substandard programming). TWC picked it up in this guise, but then RISE sold the time to AJE when Mega TV couldn't pay the bill to stay on, and under the terms of their carriage agreement TWC has to keep it on.

WRNN used to have a regional news format on their main service, but these days it's a locally produced talk show, Inside Edition, and the rights to shows long in the barter/Program Exchange basket. The remainder is infomercials and the usual E/I block.

 

[JeeperOne]

What will be interesting is if Al Jazeera will remain on Mhz. WorldView in light of this piece of news. Somehow I kinda doubt it.....

Thoughts?

Cheers & 73

 

[JeeperOne]

What will be even more interesting to see if Comcast follows Time Warner's lead & decides to pull Current from its lineup. Me thinks Doubtful because while Time Warner may be more of a Conservative-Leaning company (Afterall, they do own CNN which tends to lean Conservative), Comcast is more Progressive (And not just because they own MSNBC, though admittedly that does help further their cause) & is probably less likely to pull the plug on the new Al Jazeera America

There's one other factor at play here - That is that these are no longer the Dubya years. That helps a lot ;D

Besides, IF Comcast did pull the plug on Al Jazeera America before it got started, what (Besides Cloo, which isn't on here in Denver) could they put on in its place that's not a carbon copy of another channel (ALA Bravo, TruTV & NFL Network)

Cheers & 73 ;D

 

[FightingIrish]

What will be even more interesting to see if Comcast follows Time Warner's lead & decides to pull Current from its lineup. Me thinks Doubtful because while Time Warner may be more of a Conservative-Leaning company (Afterall, they do own CNN which tends to lean Conservative), Comcast is more Progressive (And not just because they own MSNBC, though admittedly that does help further their cause) & is probably less likely to pull the plug on the new Al Jazeera America

There's one other factor at play here - That is that these are no longer the Dubya years. That helps a lot ;D

Besides, IF Comcast did pull the plug on Al Jazeera America before it got started, what (Besides Cloo, which isn't on here in Denver) could they put on in its place that's not a carbon copy of another channel (ALA Bravo, TruTV & NFL Network)

Cheers & 73 ;D

And Comcast does own a slice of Current, so they are connected financially. Not sure if they'll be involved with AJA.

 

[Bill_W]

Re: REPORT: ALJAZEERA WANTS CURRENT

So that means on my TW system, I have international English language news channels from

BBC World News
CNN International
France 24
Russia Today (in both English and Spanish)
CCTV News (from China)
CNC News (also from China)
NHK World (from Japan)

Where do you live that you get that many international news channels? Comcast here in southern NH only has BBC World News, though we also get Current so will likely get the new Al Jazeera channel.

Alot of those channels are subchannels of Mind TV here in Philly. http://mindtv.org/styles/mind/www/channels.html Both Comcast Xfinity and Verizon FiOS carry them around here. Down in DC, a couple of channels form the MHz network. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MHz_Networks These stations are carried on their subchannels. It is possible that Comcast and Verizon carry them all down in DC too.

 

[JeeperOne]

Comcast carries Mhz. WorldView via KBDI 12 in the 25x region here in Denver

Cheers & 73 ;D

 

[JayR]

What will be even more interesting to see if Comcast follows Time Warner's lead & decides to pull Current from its lineup. Me thinks Doubtful because while Time Warner may be more of a Conservative-Leaning company (Afterall, they do own CNN which tends to lean Conservative), Comcast is more Progressive (And not just because they own MSNBC, though admittedly that does help further their cause) & is probably less likely to pull the plug on the new Al Jazeera America.

Time Warner Cable is an independent company. It is not owned by Time Warner Inc. (owners of CNN). The name is used under a licensing agreement.

 

[willdav713]

Re: REPORT: ALJAZEERA WANTS CURRENT

Just contacted Direct TV.

A tech fellow said this to me, as we're talking.

They plan on carrying this new program, since they still have a legal contract to air them.

Just because they are changing hands, doesn't mean we will drop their program.

Meaning this is one channel I will avoid on purpose.

Islam isn't my cup of tea anyway.

R.D.P. <><

Why? It is available online and through Netgear Digital Entertainer Live and Roku.

They should air Me-TV which is KSAT 12.2 instead, that I can't get online.

 

[arnoldevns]

Al Jazeera will have a hard time making money on this deal. Current was not worth a half billion dollars. The value of the investment dropped the moment it was completed when Time Warner dropped it. Current's placement on cable systems is generally far away from other news outlets. Al Jazeera will need to get the channel moved to the same channel grouping as CNN, MSNBC, etc. They will also have to promote heavily to a country where many people see them as a mouthpiece for terrorists.

Bottom line: for all the talk about this deal, it is unlikely to have much impact.

 

[JeeperOne]

Al Jazeera will have a hard time making money on this deal. Current was not worth a half billion dollars. The value of the investment dropped the moment it was completed when Time Warner dropped it. Current's placement on cable systems is generally far away from other news outlets. Al Jazeera will need to get the channel moved to the same channel grouping as CNN, MSNBC, etc. They will also have to promote heavily to a country where many people see them as a mouthpiece for terrorists.

Bottom line: for all the talk about this deal, it is unlikely to have much impact.

Translation - They have their work cut out for them

A major step in that direction would be to KEEP Bill Press & Stephanie Miller in the mornings. Even if they don't repeat Stephanie's show at 9:00 AM PT, just having it on once would be an accomplishment. Keeping Cenk Uygur & Jennifer Granholm would be another HOWEVER since Eliot was an MSNBC contributor before starting his show on Current, he's likely on Comcast's payroll & will likely return to his old job on MSNBC unless his show is moved to MSNBC by Comcast

As for Joy Behar, I can't imagine Al Jazeera having ANY interest in her so she's out too

JMO.....

Cheers & 73 ;D

 

[sandiegoinexile]

I suspect all of them will be out, as well as the boring-as-watching-paint-dry documentaries. AJ has plenty of resources at its disposal. There isn't any reason to retain talent that was attracting 40,000 viewers.

In northern CA, Comcast has Current in a rather primo location -- channel 107, mixed in with the Comcast Channel, the California state version of CSPAN, and the "leased channel" RT, the world according to Putin. They recently added bbc world news channel (channel 167) and have bloomberg and the obama-is-destroying-our-world-we-have-to-stop-him channel (fox biz) in the 125-range. CNN, Faux, msnbc, cnbc, and hln are all grouped together in the 29-35 channel slots. Maybe someday, they will group all the "news, views, and information" channels into a marketing block, along with a handful of the channels in the "international language" tier that broadcast English language news. Plus, abc and univision are launching their news channel soon.

The only program I have ever watched on Current was The Joy Behar Show. I think she is a great interviewer about half the time (and the other half is pretty exasperatingly bad). It seems that most of the talent was aware that a sale/change was imminent (Jennifer Granholm renewed her contract for three months???), so hopefully someone can offer Joy another gig.

 

[JeeperOne]

Here in Denver, the news channels stack up like this.....

37 - HLN
38 - CNN
42 - Fox News
65 & 129 - MSNBC
128 - Bloomberg
130 - Fox Business
173 - BBC World News
247 - NewsChannel 247 (KMGH-DT 7.4)
249 - 9NEWS NOW (KUSA-DT 9.2)
252 - WorldView (KBDI-DT 12.3)

C-SPAN is on 98, C-SPAN 3 is on 169 & C-SPAN 2 is on 170. The crappy & useless CET is on 105 (Not a news channel), Current is on 107, Colorado State Legislature is on 165. All Municipal City Governments are all on 8

Of all the channels in HD, only the city & state governmnet channels, Current TV, the local digis, BBC World News & (Interestingly & strangely enough) the C-SPAN networks ARE NOT in HD & up in the 65x & up region

Cheers & 73 ;D

 

[JeeperOne]

I suspect all of them will be out, as well as the boring-as-watching-paint-dry documentaries. AJ has plenty of resources at its disposal.

Like what?

Cheers & 73 ;D

 

[taylorjsdad]

Also, the Bright House system where I live only has BBC World News, and nothing else among the list. Usually, what goes for Time Warner Cable also goes for Bright House.

Time Warner Cable has a legal stake in Bright House Networks.

But is majority owned by Advance Publications (Newhouse Family). Time Warner also does some negotiation of carriage of networks for Bright House as well.

 

[bpatrick]

Now if somebody would give us back Peter Mansbridge
and the CBC's hour of "The National" and "The Journal"
(those already living near the Canadian border excepted
since you already have it).

 

[EJ204]

The NY Times has more about Al Gore's role in getting the sweet deal that Current has with a lot of cable companies. And about some of the controversy of him selling the channel to an operation that's owned and operated by the government of Qatar.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/03/gore-went-to-bat-for-al-jazeera-and-himself/

Here's one thing we really haven't discussed. Americans don't seem to be interested in news channels that give us the news. HLN used to be an operation that 48 times a day gave us a 30 minute newscast. Now it's a mix of news, gossip, talk shows, etc. The Weather Channel used to update the weather 24 hours a day. Now much of its line up is reality shows and documentaries about the weather.

And the most news-driven of the big three news channels, CNN, finds itself with lower ratings than Fox and MSNBC, which are filled with opinionated talk programs, one on the right, one on the left.

What can Al Jazeera America do against those competitors? Would Americans even watch a news channel with a foreign name, regardless of its politics or its Arab origins? The audience is small for those who enjoy watching news from foreign capitals... BBC World, CCTV News, Russia Today, France 24, etc. Even if it has newscasts anchored in NYC and gets on a decent number of American cable systems, I don't see Al Jazeera America breaking out of that crowd.