Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#1

Post by coloneltcb » Wed, Jan 13, 2016, 7:09 PM UTC

Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April
nytimes.com

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#2

Post by ianphughes » Wed, Jan 13, 2016, 7:21 PM UTC

I was annoyed when this launched because it was no longer easy to get to the English language version of Al Jazeera even if you wanted to, unless you took steps to change your location.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#3

Post by zitterbewegung » Wed, Jan 13, 2016, 7:21 PM UTC

I remember hearing about this channel being hyped in the media but I never was able to watch it (required more expensive cable plan) and also I never even saw it being referenced online like from youtube or anyone.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#4

Post by gscott » Wed, Jan 13, 2016, 7:22 PM UTC

This is too bad as I find the news on Al Jazeera to be more balanced then CNN, Fox, or MSNBC. Unfortunately it seems people want a spin on news. Al Jazeera is to the tv news as a long form article is to written journalism.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#5

Post by arbitrage » Wed, Jan 13, 2016, 7:22 PM UTC

And just when it seemed to start gaining traction, too. Pity.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#6

Post by russnewcomer » Wed, Jan 13, 2016, 7:24 PM UTC

This is unfortunate but expected. Al Jazeera has a severely unfair reputation in America, and most people probably had no idea of the difference between AJ(Qatar) and AJ(America). Hopefully they will continue to have coverage in America, and this doesn't actually mean their total exit of America-based reporting.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#7

Post by rogerbinns » Wed, Jan 13, 2016, 7:24 PM UTC

The article did not mention Al Jazeera deciding to remove their Internet streaming, and requiring that you can only view via your local cable provider. See this page with the big note to US people: http://www.aljazeera.com/watch_now/201146152255537258.html

I used to check in on their coverage on the Roku channel, but they made a business decision to prevent that. I can understand their decision to make their success dependent on the existing way of doing content business in the US (cable channels), but the number of cord cutters keeps increasing, the most valuable segment for advertisers (younger folk) are the most likely cord cutters (or cord nevers), and the cable business depends heavily on bundling. For example Disney owns ESPN (most of it), so they can make the cable companies to take a portfolio of channels, or get none of them. Al Jazeera had no such leverage.

Their business model was a big gamble, based on the past, and didn't work.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#8

Post by myth_buster » Wed, Jan 13, 2016, 7:24 PM UTC

I think it would have been a real challenge to get to the mainstream with their logo and their finances [0]

  with financing from the deep pockets of the Qatar government

when the sentiments being purported by Fox, CNN et al were in stark contrast.

[0]: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/06/business/media/al-jazeera-...

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#9

Post by curun1r » Wed, Jan 13, 2016, 7:25 PM UTC

It's a sad commentary on the state of America's appetite for intelligent analysis when serious journalism can't compete with attractive talking heads ignorantly spouting talking points. Obama may have said that the increased political rancor was one of the greatest regrets of his presidency, but I think this points to how little of that was attributable to him.

Though I'd be willing to bet that their name was half their problem. With the amount of xenophobia we're seeing these days, a large percentage of the population likely wrote them off based solely on that and was never exposed to their content.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#10

Post by tptacek » Wed, Jan 13, 2016, 7:25 PM UTC

russnewcomer wrote: post #6

This is unfortunate but expected. Al Jazeera has a severely unfair reputation in America, and most people probably had no idea of the difference between AJ(Qatar) and AJ(America). Hopefully they will continue to have coverage in America, and this doesn't actually mean their total exit of America-based reporting.

I don't think AJ had much of a reputation at all in the US. I wouldn't even know where to find it.