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BBC Announces Arabic TV Channel - London-Based Arabic Paper

Posted on: Friday, 28 October 2005, 03:01 CDT

Text of report by London-based newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat website on 26 October

At a meeting held yesterday, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) officials announced the launching of an Arabic-language television channel in 2007. They also announced the closure of eight BBC world service radios [as published] in a move to save about 35m dollars to finance the new channel. The television channel will augment the other BBC Arabic services that include radio and online services. The new Arabic television channel will have a budget of 19 million pounds sterling annually, which the BBC will receive as a grant from the government.

BBC World Service Director Nigel Chapman said that the decision to launch the television channel was based on a public survey conducted by the BBC in several Arab capitals. The results of the survey showed that the people in the region would welcome such a channel. He added that the Arabic television channel would be launched in 2007 and would initially broadcast 12 hours a day and be freely available to viewers. The officials denied that the British government would play any role from the journalistic standpoint in the channel's policy. The new channel will rely on the Cairo office after expanding it and new offices in some other Arab states.

Source: BBC Monitoring Middle East

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