Al Jazeera’s English language news channel is being watched by an increasing number of Americans despite a lack of interest from major US cable and satellite providers, a station executive has said. Nigel Parsons, managing director of Al Jazeera’s English service, said that since the channel’s debut nine months ago, worldwide viewership has grown to more than 100 million households across Europe and Africa, and in parts of Asia.

Parsons said the channel’s viewership is also growing in the US, despite the service being shunned by major cable or satellite providers in the country who say there is no market.

“We are even making inroads in the US, not only via cable and satellite,” Parsons said at a branding forum in Singapore. “Our service is available via broadband; we now have tens of thousands of subscribers in America, dispelling the notion that Americans aren’t interested in foreign news. They must be, they’re fighting two wars.”

Parsons also said a distribution tie-up between the network and YouTube has been “an astonishing success”, with almost 100,000 viewers downloading videos every week, and many of them from the US. In America, one of the few cable companies in the country to offer Al-Jazeera in its cable packages is city-owned Burlington Telecom, which serves 1,200 households in Vermont’s largest city. The channel is also on the air in Houston, Washington, and parts of Ohio.

The Arab-operated network has previously said they blamed a decision by major US cable and satellite
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carriers not to carry the channel on political pressure. Its programmes are beamed by satellite from studios in Doha, Qatar.

Parsons said the network believed in pushing the boundaries of journalism in conflict zones. “At a time when much of the Western media is moving toward lightweight, celebrity-driven news , we believe serious times require serious journalism,” Parsons said. “Do we really care so much about Paris Hilton?”

The station, which runs broadcast newsrooms in Doha, Kuala Lumpur, London and Washington, has hired more than 500 staffers, luring journalists from American and British networks including the BBC, CNN and ABC News.

Source: 7 Days.ae