Press Room

AAI in the News

Arab Channel Draws in Viewers

By Tanja Babich
Daily Herald
Posted on Monday November 20, 2006

Subscriptions to Northbrook-based VDC.com, an on-line digital cable news network, jumped 1,500 Wednesday as the Al-Jazeera English language channel launched on its network. VDC.com had been averaging five to six new subscribers daily.

Despite months of negotiations, only VDC, one other online service and a small satellite system in the U.S. were carrying the new channel from the 10-year old Arab network.

“Eighty million people around the world want to see Al-Jazeera, but no one in America is capable of seeing it,” said Will Stebbins, the network’s Washington bureau chief. “If I were an American, I would be frustrated having cable systems decide for me.”

Al-Jazeera English is striving to offer international news from multiple perspectives, free of any geographic or cultural reference points, he said. It hired more than 500 staffers, luring journalists from American and British networks.

Scott Wolf, VDC’s chief operating officer, credited the company’s ad alerts that appear when someone inputs Al- Jazeera in a Google search with spurring signups.

“We are driving a tremendous amount of traffic to the Web site because of the news coverage generated by that launch,” he said. VDC.com costs $11.95 per month, but Wolf introduced a promotional price of $8.95 Wednesday.

At 6 a.m., when Al-Jazeera launched, 300 people were watching on VDC. Later, that climbed to 1,000 people. VDC has about 6,500 subscribers.

“I want to see Al-Jazeera and get a viewpoint beyond the tightly restricted coverage of news and opinion by U.S. television,” Fleming Lee, 72, of DeLand, Fla., said in an e-mail to VDC.

Comcast Corp., the leading Chicago area cable provider, “had some preliminary discussions with the network but it did not result in a carriage agreement,” said spokeswoman Angelynne Amores.

Nadal Ibrahim, the executive director of the Arab American Institute, expects an initial surge in viewership based on sheer curiosity. “Whether it can hold onto that viewership beyond this launch period is another question,” he said.

Observers’ consensus is that the new channel will offer a different perspective on the news, something Ibrahim says “can’t be anything but good.”

VDC Wednesday also added AccuWeather, a channel based in State College, Pa., that offers localized weather forecasts.