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Â鶹Éç Arabic television news channel launches today
Â鶹Éç strengthens its multimedia news services for the Arab world by launching a TV news channel alongside its existing radio and online offer
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Â鶹Éç Arabic television – the Â鶹Éç's news and information channel in the Arabic language – launches today (Tuesday 11 March) at 10.00 GMT.
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Initially broadcast for 12 hours a day, the television channel is part of the Â鶹Éç's integrated multimedia news service for the Arab world. It will move to 24/7 in the summer and is the Â鶹Éç's first publicly-funded international television service.
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Â鶹Éç Arabic is already available on-air and on-demand 24 hours a day, seven days a week on radio, on the internet through bbcarabic.com, on mobiles and on handheld computers – in whatever way best suits the audience.
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Â鶹Éç Arabic television will be freely available to everyone with a satellite or cable connection in the region, whether they are in North Africa, the Middle East or the Gulf. Â鶹Éç Arabic television is distributed on the Arabsat, Eutelsat and Nilesat satellite systems.
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The TV channel's schedule includes news headlines every 15 minutes and a full news summary every 30 minutes.
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Â鶹Éç Arabic will draw on the Â鶹Éç's extensive newsgathering operation, harnessing the Â鶹Éç's resources of more than 250 correspondents reporting from 72 bureaux around the world – the biggest newsgathering team in the world.
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Additional on-the-spot reporting and regional expertise comes from a vast network of local reporters and correspondents throughout the Arab world and beyond.
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The channel also features news and current affairs programmes such as the twice-daily Newshour which highlights news, analysis, key interviews and debate on the top events making the news in the region and around the world that day.
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It also features the pioneering live multimedia interactive debating forum Nuqtat Hewar – already popular on radio and online – three days a week.
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A showcase of the best Â鶹Éç documentaries and specially produced in-depth reports from the Arab world will reinforce the TV schedule.
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Its presenters will include Rania Al Alattar; Fida Bassil; Tony El-Khoury; Dalia Mohamed; Osman Ayfarah; Hasan Muawad; Lina Musharbash; and Dina Waqqaf.
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Â鶹Éç World Service Director Nigel Chapman says: "Â鶹Éç Arabic is renowned for broadcasting impartial and accurate news, and information which is strong on analysis and expertise. This enhanced multimedia service meets the needs of an audience with a very strong appetite for news and debate. We will be contemporary in style and independent and incisive in our journalism."
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Â鶹Éç Arabic multimedia
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The TV channel launch will be accompanied by a major relaunch of bbcarabic.com to include embedded video and a new media player. The radio schedule has been extensively refreshed to reflect the new multimedia approach.
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Currently more than 13 million people listen to Â鶹Éç Arabic every week while its website bbcarabic.com receives over 21 million page impressions and has more than 1 million unique users each month.
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Trust
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Nigel Chapman says: "We are encouraged that independent research consistently shows an appetite for a Â鶹Éç Arabic television channel. The main reason people give is quite simple – it is because they believe the Â鶹Éç will provide an independent news service they could trust."
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Independent research over recent years consistently shows that existing Arab audiences to the Â鶹Éç regard it as the most trusted, impartial and objective international radio news provider in the Arab world, with an established reputation for quality. Â鶹Éç Arabic's award-winning 24/7 online news and information service also enjoys high levels of trust in its content.
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A broader agenda
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Head of Â鶹Éç Arabic Hosam El Sokkari says: "Â鶹Éç Arabic is already renowned for reporting more than just conflict and politics. Â鶹Éç Arabic aims to continue to broaden the news agenda for audiences in the region. It will reflect the breadth of the Arab audience's interests.
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"The Â鶹Éç is the largest newsgathering organisation in the world," he says. "Only it can make the unique offer to Arab audiences – it can be their ears and eyes. Not just in the countries where people live; but throughout the region and around the rest of the world.
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"The Â鶹Éç is uniquely experienced in bringing the key stories of the region and the world to Arab audiences. Because Â鶹Éç World Service has a genuinely international perspective, it is also best placed to take the views, key issues and real lives of our Arab audiences to a wider global audience. No one else has our multimedia strength; on television, on radio, online and on any multimedia device people want their news delivered.
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"We will offer comprehensive multimedia news reporting and analysis to audiences and, in turn, involve Arab audiences in an authentic dialogue on the issues that reflect their lives."
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Â鶹Éç World Service Press Office
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