Russian Jewish entrepreneurs are having trouble getting their Jewish television channels off the ground in an effort to counter the influence of al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based television network.
In the latest instance, entrepreneur and politician Vladimir Slutzker has been trying to create an English-language television channel that would offer news from a Jewish perspective, with little success thus far.
An initial effort by Chabad-led Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia and the CIS that would boost Jewish television broadcasts seems to have fallen through, while similar efforts to build Jewish TV stations around the world that would challenge Al Jazeera’s viewership (such as the 24-hour Jewish Life Channel, based in California, and the American digital cable channel JTV) have had limited reach.
“A Jewish television network is a niche project by definition,” said London University professor Adrian Monc, according to the JTA. “A project of worldwide scope can well consume at least $40 million to $60 million annually, and I'm afraid it won’t show a return.”
Meanwhile, Nikolai Amiridze, a former producer of Russian state TV’s Channel One, has been trying to launch Shalom TV, a proposed Jewish channel from Russia. He has not been able to find investors thus far.
“In Russia now, unlike in Soviet times, it is quite easy to be a Jew, despite widespread anti-Semitism at the grass-roots level,” Slutzker said to the JTA. “Television is the most powerful medium, and I hope to use it to create a mixture of religious, cultural, historical and other opinions on Jewish life that will unite, not divide, our people.”
Reprinted with permission from Shalom Life
RSS
