[wvns] Israel drops CNN for Al-Jazeera
Israel's largest cable provider to drop CNN for Al-Jazeera
NATHAN BURSTEIN
THE JERUSALEM POST
Oct. 23, 2007
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1192380626849&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter
It's about to lose the right to broadcast CNN in Israel, but the
country's largest cable provider appears to have found a replacement:
Al-Jazeera in English.
A contract with the controversial Gulf-based news network "should be
finalized within a few days," a senior representative of HOT
Television told The Jerusalem Post Monday. Should the deal be signed,
it will put Al-Jazeera's English-language offshoot on the air around
the time HOT drops CNN, said Yossi Lubaton, the company's vice
president of marketing.
The announcement marks the latest programming shake-up by the cable
provider, whose subscribers make up nearly two-thirds of Israel's
cable and satellite audience. Both HOT and its main competitor, Yes
Television, already offer Al-Jazeera in Arabic, and Yes added
Al-Jazeera's English channel last year.
The removal of CNN and the addition of Al-Jazeera's English version
both stemmed from financial considerations, Lubaton said, describing
the changes as part of a cost-cutting campaign launched last year by
HOT CEO David Kamenitz.
"It's an economic issue," Lubaton said. "Most of the internationally
famous news channels - Sky News, the BBC and Fox - for all of them the
cost is significantly lower than CNN. [The move] to introduce
Al-Jazeera in English comes at a much lower cost than CNN."
Though HOT is prepared to cut ties with CNN at the end of the month,
Lubaton distanced the company from statements released last week that
appeared to question CNN's competitiveness as a news organization, and
which drew attention to the channel's drop in the American ratings
race behind Fox. "We are not arguing that CNN is not one of the
leading news channels in the world, that CNN is not a good news
channel," Lubaton said.
But, he added, "We believe that the other news channels are sufficient
to satisfy subscribers' news demand."
That position is debatable, however, at least as it relates to the
arrival of Al-Jazeera's English version, said Prof. Tamar Liebes, head
of the Hebrew University's Communications Department.
"Even to think of it as a replacement is a joke," Liebes said, adding
that few Israeli viewers would be inclined to "trust" the channel's
coverage of international affairs. Al-Jazeera's Arabic network, which
broadcast videotapes featuring Osama bin Laden soon after the
September 11, 2001, attacks, has been criticized for what some call
its anti-American and anti-Israel news coverage.
"It's incomprehensible," Liebes said. "Whatever functions CNN
performed, none of them will be performed by Al-Jazeera. It's a whole
different kind of person who will watch."
The channel has remained the international news leader in Israel, said
Hagit Mendes, a spokeswoman for the network here. Her comments were
echoed by Liebes, who named the network one of two channels Israelis
turn to for coverage of breaking news stories overseas.
Asked about her channel's imminent eclipse in Israel by Al-Jazeera in
English, Mendes declined to comment.
"We have issues with HOT, not with other channels," she said. "We
welcome another international news channel. It's a good thing to have
as many channels as possible in a democratic society."
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