Why is Al-Jazeera, the satellite television channel transmitting from Qatar—a small, relatively obscure Gulf Emirate—so popular, so powerful that it is starting to change the face of Arab TV news broadcasting? Al-Jazeera's impact is so powerful because until ten years ago TV journalism as we know it did not exist …

Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani, chairman of the board of Al-Jazeera, spoke with TBS Senior Editor Abdallah Schleifer and Managing Editor Sarah Sullivan in Doha about the philosophy behind the channel, and how it has developed into a global broadcaster. TBS: How did it all begin? How did the idea …

An interview with John Tydeman, CEO, Arab Digital Distribution John Tydeman is CEO of Arab Digital Distribution (ADD), the platform company for the Arab Media Corporation (AMC) group which owns ART. ADD creates and manages bouquets of channels and markets and distributes these channels across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle …

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 …

Several satellite projects are breaking new ground in the Middle East. Egypt needed to find an effective medium for transmissions that reach all parts of the country and the Arab region as well, with minimum expense. The Egyptian government wanted to take a piece of the satellite cake by taking advantage …

Will it be cooperation or competition for Nilesat and Arabsat, the Middle East's two major satellites? And what will be the impact of Cairo's new Media Free Zone on any competition? TBS Senior Editor Hussein Amin spoke with Arabsat Assistant Director General Omar Shoter in Paris, and TBS Cairo Correspondent Heba Kandil …

Special section: "Actors and New Stakes in the Euro-Arab Satellite Scene": Reports from the Institut du Monde Arabe's first Arab broadcasting seminar The essential question at hand in this seminar—the complex state of the Arab satellite broadcasting industry, and its relations with Mediterranean neighbors—was "phrased" in various ways by different panels, with …

Two years ago, Nilesat was launched carrying a vast array of Egyptian and Arabic channels, promising to change the Arab media scene and reassert Egypt's role as the region's media leader. Among that array were the thematic channels, owned by the government's "public corporation" the Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU), …

A Conversation with Michael Hudson and Jon Anderson,  Co-Directors of the Arab Information Project, The Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University "Access to new information resources is shaping up as a major issue across the Arab Middle East," says Dr. Michael Hudson, Seif Ghobash Professor of Arab Studies and Professor of International …

With the enormous and ever-increasing number of TV programs being offered nowadays—it could soon reach 500 digital channels worldwide—viewers are in need of help in navigating this myriad of options, a solution that will provide them with more information on the programs and give them a simple, easy-to-follow guide. Perhaps nowhere …