Al Jazeera television withdraws from the market in the US. They were great … – BBC

“The decision of the board of Al Jazeera America stems from the fact that our business model is simply not sustainable in light of the economic challenges US media market “- said Al Anstey in a note to employees. “I know it will be a huge disappointment for all those who tirelessly worked here” – she wrote the director. He added that “this decision does not follow from this that we have done something wrong; on the contrary – we have done a great job. ”

Big momentum and 12 offices in the US

Al Jazeera America was launched with great fanfare in August 2013. The creators announced that the programs will be produced in the US and promised impartial, deep journalism with the reportage from the field. The channel opened up 12 offices across the country; not only in New York (here is the main editorial office) and Washington, but also places where there were no other national television, for example. in Detroit.

No interest viewers and the “culture of fear” in the station

But despite the considerable financial investment channel was difficult to get American audiences. The audience never exceeded the US tens of thousands of people.

In addition, last year the crisis erupted in the station when workers complained of the prevailing “culture of fear”, anti-Semitism and sexism. With the channel is gone then some people from executives; work atmosphere has improved, but it did not affect the growth of viewership.

  Al Jazeera America was launched with great fanfare in August 2013 years (Fig. PAP / EPA / PETER FOLEY)
 

Experts from the beginning doubted the success of the project Al Jazeera America. – In the US, every foreign television is a hard to beat, even the BBC, let alone television, whose name is for most Americans unfamiliar and strange – explains the expert. Media market in the US Al Tompkins of The Poynter Institute, when the station was moving in 2013 .

The American Spectator – says Tompkins – selects the channels that guarantee him that shown in them the world would be like this, who knows. This is why so little is in (US) television news abroad.

Media Offensive

The Qatari media group Al-Jazeera long been preparing to acquire a large audience in the United States. Her English-language channel Al Jazeera Angielski was previously available in only a few US cities. In January 2013, Al-Jazeera bought for about $ 500 million TV Current TV owned in part to former Vice President Al Gore and obtained in this way access to its distribution network.

This decision caused a lot of controversy. Doubts raised up the fact that TV belongs to the government of Qatar, which according to critics preclude independence. Broadcaster in the Middle East in Arabic Al-Jazeera was seen as anti-American, when after the attacks on 11 September 2001 gave speeches of Osama bin Laden and not shied from criticizing the policy of President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq.