The New York Times reports:
Every cable news channel has its moment.
CNN had the gulf war. Fox News had the war on terror. And Al Jazeera English had the Arab Spring.
But six months after widespread protests erupted in the Middle East, the Qatar-based Al Jazeera has not gained distribution on any major cable or satellite systems in the United States. The channel’s supporters say they feel it has been blacklisted; the distributors say they have to contend with limited channel space.
Undeterred, Al Jazeera English executives say they are making headway. On Monday, the channel will be carried in New York City for the first time, though only by subletting space from a channel owner. The channel has a foothold in Washington through a similar arrangement.
“We will get on in the U.S.,” Al Anstey, the channel’s managing director, said confidently in an interview in Manhattan, where he came late last week to celebrate the carriage deal.
Full story here.