Al Jazeera (DStv 406 / TopTV 401) will regress and take a step backwards in less than 90 days when viewers of the Middle Eastern based 24-hour news channel will no longer be able to see its video news feed streamed online as is currently the case.
Al Jazeera will stop streaming its news feed on the internet sometime during April 2013; South African viewers will henceforth only be able to watch the Qatar based TV news channel on MultiChoice's DStv and On Digital Media's TopTV and no longer online.
Al Jazeera will now turn Current TV into a new Al Jazeera TV news channel customised for America, with the working title Al Jazeera America.
In order for this change to happen, Al Jazeera will stop streaming its English language service online so that American pay-TV platforms can have the news TV channel exclusively for their TV platforms, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Whether Al Jazeera English ever returns to streaming its video feed online will depend on whether American pay-TV operators allow the Qatar news operation to do so.
Al Jazeera is desperate to grow the number of people watching the channel on television in America, and is therefore willing to forego and give up streaming the channel on the internet in return for taking over the existing Current TV and getting carriage of its signal into millions more American TV households.
America pay-TV operators are not willing to carry a TV channel which subscribers have to pay for, which then has its content available for free online anyway.
"We'd love to do both, but the deals with distributors prevent it," an Al Jazeera spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal.
