Television
BBC launching Arabic TV channel
By Middle East Online
Oct 25, 2005, 14:55

LONDON - The BBC World Service said Tuesday it will launch an Arabic-language television channel as part of a radical restructuring that will also see the end of radio broadcasts aimed at once-communist eastern Europe.


BBC World Service director Nigel Chapman described the changes as the "biggest transformation" ever undertaken since the BBC began international broadcasting nearly 70 years ago.


The far-reaching changes - which also include expanding Internet services in Arabic - were required because of changes in technology, the world and Europe, he added.


BBC Arabic Television Service is expected to go live in 2007 and compete with the Qatar-based satellite broadcaster Al-Jazeera, which is itself launching an English-language service next year.


Chapman pledged to build on the BBC World Service's legacy as "the most successful, trusted and respected voice in the Middle East" by offering "trusted and accurate news with an international agenda".


The 19 million pound (28 million euro, 33.6 million dollar) a year TV project will create 148 new jobs.


But the changes will also see 218 posts go with the closure of 10 radio services - in Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Kazakh, Polish, Slovak, Slovene and Thai.


"Many of the European services being closed had their roots in the Second World War and have served their audiences well right through the Cold War years," Chapman said.


"But Europe has changed, fundamentally, since the early '90s. Now the countries to which these languages are broadcast are members of the European Union or are likely to join soon."


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