The TV news biz has been abuzz over Al Jazeera (TopTV 401 / DStv 406) slashing news staff across the globe as the Qatar headquarter based 24 hour news channel from the Middle East is forking out massive amounts of money to acquire sports rights.
The cost of sports rights has meant cuts in the news side of the business, with the authoritative Bloomberg BusinessWeek reporting that Al Jazeera English, the language channel feed which South African viewers can see on MultiChoice's DStv and On Digital Media's TopTV, has cut or relocated at least 200 staff members as part of budget cuts.
According to reports plans Al Jazeera to start that Swahili language news channel offshoot has also been dumped as Al Jazeera is centralizing its editorial control in Doha.
Al Jazeera is now paying big money for European soccer rights as the country prepares to host the World Cup in 2022, and grabbing exclusive broadcasting rights to popular soccer games in the United States and France. The channel has spend half a billion dollars on soccer rights in France so far.
About 80% of Al Jazeera staff in Kuala Lumpur are gone and half of Al Jazeera staff in Washington DC are gone.