Al Jazeera English Steps Up U.S. Carriage Efforts

Channel, With Minor U.S. Cable Presence, Adds Lawrie As Distribution Head

By Kent Gibbons -- Multichannel News, 9/27/2007 1:43:00 PM

New York--Al Jazeera English chief Nigel Parsons says the network is stepping up efforts to gain U.S. cable or satellite TV distribution, and talks are going well with “one of the majors.”

Parsons, managing director of the 10-month-old news and entertainment service, a spinoff of the Arabic-language channel, said he hoped the talks with the major distributor, which he would not name, could be successfully concluded before year-end. He also said AJE was willing to be flexible on carriage terms in order to get a deal done. Asked if AJE might consider being sold as a premium network, rather than on a more basic lineup, Parsons said in an interview: “I believe that’s one of the options” being discussed.

AJE said it has hired Philip Lawrie, a former international distribution executive for CNN, as director of global distribution. Lawrie’s last position at CNN was vice president of commercial distribution and digital media sales, based in London, AJE officials said. 

Parsons, who said Lawrie's been on the job at AJE for a few weeks, noted that the network plans to add more programming about health issues, the environment and shows aimed at younger viewers.

AJE has said in the past it had some sizable cable deals lined up – including one with Comcast Corp – that were withdrawn out of fear of a backlash from viewers who associate the channel with the Arabic version, that became known in the United States largely for airing videos from Osama bin Laden and for showing images of dead American soldiers, as The Washington Post pointed out last November. Both Al Jazeera channels are owned by the emir of Qatar, where both channels are based. Comcast has said it talked with AJE, but then decided not to carry it.

Parsons said AJE’s two U.S. cable distributors, Toledo, Ohio-based Buckeye CableSystem and the municipal system in Burlington, Vt., haven’t seen subscriber losses because of AJE. Although Buckeye officials said this past spring there were some subscriber complaints initially.

Parsons said the gathering of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, and speeches at the U.N. and at Columbia University by Iran president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, illustrated the need for an internationally based news source to balance out strident coverage of and reaction to Ahmadinejad’s remarks.

“I’m not defending him as necessarily a good guy, but I’m not rushing to judgment on him either,” Parsons said.

The Iranian’s views on whether the Holocaust occurred, Parsons said for example, have not been well explained by U.S. media. “I have to say, looking at the coverage here, it’s been a pretty abysmally one-sided event with no sense of context,” he said. “There hasn’t been an alternative voice.”

In a release on his hiring, Lawrie said: “We've waited in the queue to be seen in the U.S. patiently. The fact that Al Jazeera English's Web site receives 4 to 5 million page views per week with up to 60% of the hits coming from the United States tells us there is a great demand for international news by the U.S. audience. And other markets such as India and Hong Kong, which have large English-speaking populations, are keen to see local news through their own eyes, not through those of someone sitting in Atlanta or London. That's what Al Jazeera promises and delivers."

AJE also said its worldwide distribution is to more than 100 million homes. A spokesman said that counts satellite and cable coverage in Europe, Africa, South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East and South America.

AJE’s program mix is about 55% to 60% news currently, according to Parsons. A key on-air figure is veteran U.S. broadcast journalist Dave Marash, who’s AJE’s Washington, D.C.-based anchor.