BBC wants to draw Arab audience
BBC to launch Arabic channel
New channel expected to be launched by 2007; meanwhile, British broadcaster to close down 10 local language radio services, mostly in Europe. BBC World Service director: Europe has changed
The BBC has confirmed Tuesday it will be launching an Arabic-language television, news and information channel for the Middle East in 2007.
Meanwhile, the BBC will be closing down 10 local language radio services, mostly in eastern Europe, as part of a broad restructuring move.
The Arabic channel will be the first publicly funded international television service launched by the British broadcaster, a press release said. The Arabic Television Service will compete with Arab TV channel al-Jazeera, which was founded in 1996 after the collapse of BBC Arabic, an earlier joint venture between the World Service and Saudi-owned broadcaster Orbit.
The new channel was formed at the request of the British Foreign Office, which funds the World Service through a direct grant worth 239 million pounds (USD 422.2 million) in 2005-2006.
The BBC plans to initially broadcast 12 hours a day and is expected to offer the channel free of charge with a satellite or cable connection in the region. The estimated operating cost of 19 million British pounds a year will be funded by the BBC World Service’s existing grant-in-aid funding from the UK Government, the press release said.
‘Europe has changed’
BBC World Service Director, Nigel Chapman said: “The BBC’s Arabic language service is already the most successful, trusted and respected voice in the Middle East with more than 60 years experience of broadcasting in the Arabic language on radio, and more recently and successfully, online.”
According to Chapman, recent studies in the Middle East showed between 80 and 90 per cent of those surveyed are likely to watch an Arabic Television service from the BBC.
Chapman also said broadcasts in Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Kazakh, Polish, Slovak, Slovene and Thai will cease by 2006.
"Many of the European services being closed had their roots in the Second World War and have served their audiences well right through the Cold War years," he said. "But Europe has changed, fundamentally, since the early nineties.”
