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Al Jazeera buying Current TV?


caliwxdude

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Dish still labels AJAM as "CURNT," and if you happen to have a Hopper DVR, the old Current logo pops up. This could turn off potential viewers too, but we know they're not going to grab the "Fox News is my only source of TV news" crowd.

Weird, DirecTV showed it as AJAM, but they didn't put the logo, it just showed the words.
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  • 4 weeks later...

Did you guys see the article which said Al Gore tried to merge Twitter with Current? Would've been interesting if Current adapted a Huff Post Live-style format with talk show hosts reliant on Twitter to break news and discuss news. It would've been ahead of the curve. Would've been nice especially during breaking news.

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  • 3 weeks later...

More Al-Jazeera America news: Not only did Time Warner has struck an agreement with AJAM, but AJAM is expanding with "more bureaus and staff, more hours of coverage, wider distribution and a greater emphasis on investigative reporting". From TheWrap.com...

 

http://www.thewrap.com/al-jazeera-america-expanding-bureaus-staff-hours/

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  • 2 months later...

A quick update:

 

1) Livestation does carry Al Jazeera America now...for international viewers. Oddly enough, while I was "proxying" my way to AJAM on Livestation to watch the New Year's Eve celebrations, I noticed that they were simulcasting Al Jazeera Arabic instead. I checked Comcast (yep, I'm with Crapcast again,) and AJAM was airing The Stream. Weird.

 

2) While the website redirects continue, there is a link in the AJAM website footer that allows you to go to the AJE site and set it as your preferred Al Jazeera site. The livestream doesn't work, even with proxies and VPNs; and the videos don't work for U.S. viewers.

 

3) I read a month ago that AJE's programs dropped ratings-wise even more, with some programs apparently pulling in zero viewers. I don't know if this situation has changed since.

 

4) Time Warner Cable (and by extension, Bright House Networks) carries AJAM now, in SD (HD in some markets). AT&T is still in Lawsuit Alley.

 

EDIT: Clarification of the HD status on Time Warner Cable. Thanks, LoadStar!

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4) Time Warner Cable (and by extension, Bright House Networks) carries AJAM now, in both SD and HD. AT&T is still in Lawsuit Alley.

 

Time Warner Cable Wisconsin only carries AJAM in SD. It is buried in the middle of the digital lineup, next to similarly SD-only news stations CCTV English and BBC World News.
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If Comcast is carrying AJAM in HD, it's yet to do so here in southern NH.

 

I'm also waiting for BBC World News to be in HD, but I'm actually not sure if it's even available yet.

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If Comcast is carrying AJAM in HD, it's yet to do so here in southern NH.

 

I'm also waiting for BBC World News to be in HD, but I'm actually not sure if it's even available yet.

 

Comcast carries AJAM in SD (channel 107 here,) as well as BBC World News (SD as well, channel 100).

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AJAM is now on-air on U-Verse channel 219/1219 HD, which is on the high end of the news tier, slotted between CNBC and Bloomberg. Compare that to HLN, Fusion, OAN, BBC World News and CNNI that are sandwiched between CNN and FNC.

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AJAM has been in HD on FiOS since about mid-May, and I've really pleased by their content. Apparently all the news bullitens are live, even into the night, which is a refreshing change from CNN, MSNBC, and FOX, which essentially end live broadcasts by 11pm.

 

I've also noticed that they have recently updated the look of the primetime newscasts, away from the dull teal to a really attractive nighttime satellite look. They are also using minimalist OTSs that blend in with the backdrop as well, but I don't have a capture. I really hope they get more viewers, it's honestly the best American news channel in my view.

 

Before:

 

al_jazeera_news_room_h_2013.jpg

 

After:

evw4oMZ.jpg?1

 

qpVH9N3.png?1

20140630-230128-82888660.jpg

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AJAM has been in HD on FiOS since about mid-May, and I've really pleased by their content. Apparently all the news bullitens are live, even into the night, which is a refreshing change from CNN, MSNBC, and FOX, which essentially end live broadcasts by 11pm.

 

I've also noticed that they have recently updated the look of the primetime newscasts, away from the dull teal to a really attractive nighttime satellite look. They are also using minimalist OTSs that blend in with the backdrop as well, but I don't have a capture. I really hope they get more viewers, it's honestly the best American news channel in my view.

 

Before:

 

al_jazeera_news_room_h_2013.jpg

 

After:

evw4oMZ.jpg?1

 

qpVH9N3.png?1

20140630-230128-82888660.jpg

 

I've been watching them more since UVerse just added it and I find the stories they air to be interesting. Definately a breath from fresh air from the dreck that passes as cable news here in the US.

 

Now I'm all set since we now get CNNI and BBC News as well.

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Haven't had a chance to catch it but I stopped by 219 and happy to know I get it (I have U200 I think). No, I don't get CNNI or BBC World News but I am happy I get One America so I've been watching these two along with local news. And yes, I watch the news with a critical eye to filter out political bias.

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I would be a viewer of theirs—if Cox actually carried them. They are the largest MSO not to carry AJAM (Cablevision is another massive holdout).

 

The quality of their product, from what I have heard, is outstanding. But I can't see it.

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I would be a viewer of theirs—if Cox actually carried them. They are the largest MSO not to carry AJAM (Cablevision is another massive holdout).

 

The quality of their product, from what I have heard, is outstanding. But I can't see it.

 

I wonder if it's deteroriated after they had layoffs
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I wonder if it's deteroriated after they had layoffs

 

It hasn't really deteriorated, especially since they have access to reporters from Al Jazeera English for international news. I think they consolidated the sports department, but I don't think they're really going for the ESPN demographic, so no loss.

 

If anything, I think they've gotten more aggressive in promoting what they offer. For instance, John Siegenthaler prefaces the 11pm headlines stating "You're watching the only live national newscast at this hour".

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I don't think the layoffs were necessarily a reduction of core news personnel, as they said. I follow a few social media people on Twitter who were hired by AJAM to do social media. I remember thinking that they were hired pretty close to the launch of the network (a matter of weeks before the launch), but then when I saw that a lot of them had been laid off a while later, it clicked with me. They really must have hired a lot of extra people at the 11th hour to make sure everything would run smoothly for the first few months, then laid them off. Maybe not the best business practice, but I agree that I don't think the layoffs made much of an impact, if any, on the output today.

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I mentioned this it the shout box, but I do find it surprising that satellite time, per TVNewser, is "killing them" - did they not realize the cost or the amount that they would be using it? They now want Dejero units to be used more often, which will eventually run into problems if they choose to deploy them during a big news event when cell coverage is spotty at best and down in the worst. I'm surprised that they also didn't consider leasing a satellite transponder (like the networks, CNN, Fox News, BBC, and a few station groups like Hearst and Scripps do) they'd pay to lease it and they could use it as much as they want or that Al Jazeera International didn't have one covering the Americas. I do realize they'd have to rent or buy uplink trucks to it.

 

Also the same email made it sound like they want guests to either come to their studios or use skype to avoid insert studio costs.

 

Update: I priced the cost of a single transponder and I was thinking it would be "cheaper" at about $1,000,000 a year but a message board post in 2008 said it ranged from $150,000-250,000 a month so at a minimum $1,800,000 a year.

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  • 4 weeks later...

AJAM is available free of charge 24/7 on nimbleTV.com

 

Not AJE but AJAM.

 

AJE is available on Filmon.com

 

BTW, what will AJAM do about it's ratings? If I were them, I would sell a stake of their network to one of the trendy sites Vice or BuzzFeed and rebrand under their name. The only problem is I doubt any of those brands want to team up with the government of Qatar especially after word has surfaced that they're funding ISIS.

 

I hope AJAM doesn't go belly-up because their programming is extremely solid, even if they have some shady connections (to play devil's advocate, you can find biases and weird connections with American news networks as well but Qatar's connections are much more open and well-known). AJAM should find someone to syndicate their news too so that they can find other ways of profiting.

 

Maybe get a radio deal like CNN just did with Cumulus? Or provide clips to a supplement news stories which are written on general interest websites like AOL or Yahoo?

 

Maybe the answer is to merge with another independent company struggling like Pivot to cut costs?

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BuzzFeed

 

Ah yes, that seems to be the exactly kind of high-brow crowd that they're going for.

 

They don't seem too worried about money (not that they have to be), so I don't see those alternatives happening. And if you really want to implicate Qatari foreign policy onto all of Al Jazeera, you may as well do the same with CNN/Fox/NBC, BBC, et al.

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