The problematic posed by the organizers of this colloquium pose a number of issues to consider when looking at the economic feasibility of specialized and general channels. But first let me clarify the points from which I draw my own perspectives on this issue—and it is not from comprehensive research, the …

CAIRO: When some of Al-Jazeera's commentators and talk show guests from Islamist and other Arab radical ranks criticized the Sharm al-Sheikh summit hosted by Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak as a failure, or worse, as "a shameful betrayal of the Palestinians" and their Intifada al-Aqsa, the honeymoon that had begun last …

TBS Senior Editor S. Abdallah Schleifer initially spoke with Al-Ali in Cairo about the development, philosophy, and new plans of the region's hottest, most controversial channel. With recent developments that have clouded relations between Al-Jazeera and Egypt, Schleifer and Al-Ali renewed the dialogue   S. Abdallah Schleifer: Al-Jazeera has an approach …

S. Abdallah Schleifer: Is CNE seriously considering a move from the VHF analog retransmission that's now offered to CNE terrestrial customers to digital terrestrial? Abdel Rahman Hafez: Up to now we have not committed because of the expenses, and above all because of the price of the digital receiver, the decoders that …

The first digital cable TV network in the Arab World was finally launched on April 15, 2000 by E-Vision, a subsidiary of Etisalat, the Emirates Telecommunications Corporation.  Elsewhere in the Arab world "cable" is usually either shorthand for "wireless cable," which is itself shorthand for the MMDS microwave systems or for …

When reporters and TV news executives gathered at the Fira Palace Hotel in Barcelona last November for the Fourth News World Global News Forum (with participants drawn from the ranks of CNN, APTN, BBC, ITN, CBS, ABC, NBC, and Fox News, among the many media organizations represented), the atmosphere was very …

(This story was published in the February 2001 issue of Digital Studio magazine and is reprinted here with the kind permission of the editors. For background on Dubai Media City, please see "The Dubai Digital Broadcasting Miracle," by Abdallah Schleifer, in our last issue.) An evening dominated by a spectacular firework display marked …

Al-Jazeera, the all-news channel broadcast from Qatar, has been the hottest, most popular satellite channel in the region for the past two years. But it has its critics; even its Ramallah bureau from where it has provided some of the most dramatic coverage of Intifada Al Aqsa was shut down …

With the recent opening of Dubai Media City, Dubai firmly established itself as the regional media hotspot. It's also a major commercial center in the Middle East—and these two factors make the EDTV Business Channel, one of Emirates-Dubai Television's latest offerings, a natural. TBS Senior Editor S. Abdallah Schleifer spoke …

It seems like it all has happened in little more than a year: the launch of Dubai TV's cutting-edge digital satellite channel, the Dubai Business Channel; the opening of the extraordinary Dubai Press Club with its vast expanse of Internet-connected computer stations and large overhead TV screens tuned in to every …