Keach Hagey, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Al-Jazeera to Buy Current TV

January 2, 2013 at 4:37 pm PT

Al-Jazeera, the pan-Arab news network owned by the government of Qatar, is buying Current TV, the struggling left-leaning current-affairs channel co founded by Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, according to people familiar with the matter.

The deal could give al-Jazeera its first access to national cable distribution in the U.S., a goal it has campaigned hard for over the last several years.

Current doesn’t have the full distribution to 90 million homes that most cable channels have. However, it does reach about 60 million homes. Right now, al-Jazeera’s English channel is distributed in local cable markets including Washington, D.C. and Burlington, Vermont, as well as online.

Read the rest of the post on the original site »

Tagged with: Al Gore, Al Jazeera, Arab, cable TV, Current TV, Joel Hyatt, Keach Hagey, Qatar, The Wall Street Journal

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