Al Jazeera English Launches in New York

NEW YORK, Aug. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Al Jazeera English has become available for the first time to cable television viewers across New York.

Two Million Subscribers to Time Warner Cable (Channel 92) and Verizon FiOS in the New York City region will be able to tune into global news coverage all day and through the night. This has been made possible through cooperation with Regional News Network (RNN) on their RISE channel.

Al Jazeera English became available to Time Warner Cable viewers this morning at 12:01am and will become available on Verizon FiOS in the coming days.

Al Jazeera English hailed the launch which they said brings "international news to an international city." The global news channel also released statistics on the large number of New Yorkers who are already regularly tuning into them through the internet.

"We're delighted to now be on televisions across New York," said Al Anstey, Al Jazeera English's Managing Director.  "This launch has been fueled by viewer demand. We are already part of the media landscape here, with one in ten people having got information on events in America and the world from our website this year alone. We get more web traffic from New York than any other city on earth. Half a million New Yorkers are classed as regular visitors. Ever since our establishment, we've been committed to coverage of America and New York with a large bureau and team of journalists based in the city, so we're delighted to now be broadcasting global news onto televisions throughout the global melting pot that is New York."

RNN, a privately owned, New York-based news and talk television network that reaches 6 million households in the tri-state area alone will also plan to air Al Jazeera English on WRNN-TV weekdays at 5pm EST, leading into the Emmy-Award winning "Richard French Live."

"Since 1993, Regional News Network has proudly served the tri-state area with original and compelling programming," said RNN President Dick French. "We are thrilled to be working with Al Jazeera English to meet the demand that exists for more international news in the New York City area, one of the most culturally and ethnically diverse in the world. Al Jazeera English has a clear commitment to telling stories from often underreported regions from Latin America, through Africa and the Middle East to Asia and the Far East. We're sure New Yorkers will appreciate its presence in the lineup of channels."

Al Jazeera English is truly an international network, holding 70 bureaus around the world which span six different continents. The channel's content is already on air across the US in places like Washington DC, Los Angeles and Ohio; and it can also be viewed across Latin America and Canada.

Since February, cable and satellite providers have received more than 70,000 emails from Americans asking for access to the channel, with among the highest percentage of these emails coming from New York.

Al Jazeera English was established in 2006 as part of the Al Jazeera Network, with its own content, editors and journalists reaching a global English-speaking audience which currently stands at over 250m households across 130 countries. The channel has continued to grow in reach and popularity, and has been recognized for its distinguished reporting and programming including being awarded this year's Columbia Journalism Award and "Best 24 Hour News Program" at the 48th and 50th Annual Monte-Carlo Television Festival. Al Jazeera English has also won Best News Channel three years running at the UK's Freesat awards. Al Jazeera English has received awards from the Royal Television Society, Amnesty International and YouTube and has received nominations for international Emmy awards in both the News and Current Affairs categories and the Royal Television Society awards as the 2009 and 2010 "News Channel of the Year" in the UK.

Notes

1. Al Jazeera English is available on Channel 92 on Time Warner Cable and will become available on Verizon FiOs in the coming days. Together Al Jazeera English will be available to the two million households subscribing to Time Warner and Verizon FIOS in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island, Westchester and much of New Jersey.

2. Coverage will include one hour per day of local programming in the form of "Richard French Live" 3-4pm, as well as a short block of children's programming on weekend mornings.

3. New York is the latest area where Al Jazeera has become available on television. The channel is available 24/7 in Washington DC and in select additional markets throughout the country. Additionally, portions of its news content and programming are carried through other providers in the US, including Free Speech TV and Link TV, which reach millions of Americans through DISH and DirecTV.  Al Jazeera English news bulletins are broadcast on MHz Worldview, which is carried in more than 30 cities throughout the country, and KCET in Los Angeles carries several hours of Al Jazeera English content daily. An audio bulletin is aired daily in New York and other cities on Pacifica radio.

What people are saying about Al Jazeera English:

"Viewership of Al Jazeera is going up in the United States because it's real news. You may not agree with it but you feel like you're getting real news around the clock instead of a million commercials and arguments between talking heads and the kind of stuff that we do on our news."

—US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

"I'm very proud of the role that Al Jazeera has played...What Al Jazeera has done is achieve something that all of us I think want to achieve as we grow older, and that is to make a contribution that will last and be brought to future generations that lie ahead of us."

—Senator John McCain

"That's right, even the President of the United States is watching Al Jazeera."

—Business Insider

"Al Jazeera has been an absolute life line for the rest of the world."

—Rachel Maddow, MSNBC

"Al Jazeera English has performed a great service in bringing the English-speaking world in-depth coverage of the turmoil in the Middle East."

—Nicholas Lemann, Dean, Columbia School of Journalism

"There was a plainspoken clarity and a depth to A.J.E.'s coverage...Americans have fallen for A.J.E.'s authenticity."

—Nancy Franklin, The New Yorker

Hat tip to @AJEnglish for fine coverage of #Egypt and #Tunisia. It's sad that so few American cable co's offer it.

—New York Times Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Nicholas Kristof on Twitter

"AJE is the essential source for information in the fast-changing Middle East. I stream it now online, but others should have this important news source on cable TV—especially here in the international city of New York."

—New York City cable subscriber

"Extended coverage on stories are often not reaching us through other media. I have seen some objective, quality reporting. If we are in a global community, we need disparate media inputs so we can improve our understanding of the world in which we live."

—New York cable subscriber

ABOUT RNN

WRNN is an entity that owns broadcasting properties and is a content provider and programmer for third parties.  Since its inception as an over the air broadcast station in Kingston, NY, WRNN has grown exponentially, creating relationships and partnerships with some of the biggest global brands in Broadcasting and Telecommunications including Verizon and Al Jazeera. WRNN now reaches more than six million households in the nation's number one DMA.  The network can be viewed on cable, satellite, over the air and on FiOS in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.  WRNN's base of operations is located in Rye Brook, NY where it has a state of the art digital production facility.  WRNN produces its own original content including, "Richard French Live," an interactive Emmy Award-winning political news talk show that covers current affairs and social issues.

SOURCE Al Jazeera English