Commented MultiChoice's GM content, Aletta Alberts, “We are pleased at the addition of Al Jazeera to our platform as it will further enhance our offering. My team and I are constantly challenged to ensure that our content continues to engage our very diverse customers. We believe that the Al Jazeera channel will help achieve this, as it provides news and information across cultures, providing a new perspective and also exposure to stories previously untold.”
Al Jazeera, a 24-hour news and current affairs channel headquartered in Doha, Quatar, broadcasts to more than 90 million cable and satellite households worldwide, is available through live streaming and on YouTube, and is the first global news channel to be headquartered in the Middle East.
The channel promotes debate and challenges long-held perceptions. With broadcasting centers in Doha, Kuala Lumpur, London and Washington DC and supporting bureaux world-wide, the channel aims to set the agenda, bridge cultures and provide a unique grassroots perspective from under-reported regions around the world to a global audience. The station broadcasts news, current affairs, features, documentaries, live debates, entertainment, business and sport.
Nigel Parsons, MD at Al Jazeera, said: “We are delighted that MultiChoice will be carrying Al Jazeera and that it recognises the growing hunger for accurate, impartial and objective news. This agreement allows MultiChoice to offer people more choice in their news consumption.”
The channel currently has bureaux in Cairo, Egypt; Abidjan, Ivory Coast; Nairobi, Kenya; Johannesburg, South Africa; and Harare, Zimbabwe and shares the resources of Al Jazeera Arabic Channel's African bureaux located in Ndjamena, Chad; Tripoli, Libya; Nouakchott, Mauritania; Rabat, Morocco; Dakar, Senegal; Mogadishu-Somalia, Johannesburg, South Africa; and Khartoum, Sudan.
In pursuing a news agenda that is all-inclusive, Al Jazeera English is allegedly the only global news channel to be granted a licence to operate a bureau in Zimbabwe, giving the channel unique access to this part of southern Africa.
