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Moroccan Paper Notes "Slim" Chances of Success for New BBC Arabic TV Channel

Posted on: Friday, 28 October 2005, 15:01 CDT

Text of unattributed report entitled "BBC Arabic: New channel on the Arab media scene with an annual budget of 33m dollars" published by Moroccan Islamic movement Tawhid wal Islah daily newspaper Attajdid on 28 October

The BBC has announced its decision to launch a television news and information channel in Arabic which will be the first publicly- funded worldwide television channel to be launched by the network. This represents a fundamental change of direction for the BBC World Service which for the last 70 years has occupied a pre-eminent and pioneering position on the world media stage by virtue of its international radio broadcasting and more recently as a major source of Internet-based news.

The channel will be launched in 2007, initially broadcasting 12 hours a day. It will be available to everyone in the region by satellite and cable. It will cover the important international and regional issues and will also air discussion programmes and debates in a variety of media, in cooperation with the well-established BBC Arabic radio, with its high levels of credibility and with BBC Internet services. The BBC Arabic channel will be able to rely on the incomparable sources of information which the BBC network invested in and built up over its long history. A 19m pounds sterling (33.6m dollar) working expenditure will be made available from the current allowance that the BBC currently receives from the UK government.

The Director of the BBC World Service, Nigel Chapman, said that BBC Arabic would be the only media corporation offering its services in the Middle East in Arabic via television, radio and Internet. Through its programmes it will also facilitate the exchange of views around the region and the world."

Chapman continued: "The studies we recently carried out in seven Arab capitals show that 80-90 per cent of those who filled in our questionnaires would welcome watching a television service presented by the BBC. We are offering this service in response to the great need in the region for the provision of complete, precise, independent and trustworthy news service, in addition to discussion programmes in which Arabic speakers would participate."

Observers of the Arab media scene see the chances of success for this channel - which is competing with Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya - as extremely slim, considering the difficulty of persuading the modern Arab TV viewer of the BBC's neutrality. This is especially difficult because of renewed British intervention in the Arab region, its invasion of Iraq and its unconditional alliance with the US.

Source: BBC Monitoring Media

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