BBC News Arabic (), formerly BBC Arabic Television, is a television news channel broadcast to the

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by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. It was launched on 11 March 2008. It is run by the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...

and funded from the British television licence fee.

History

In 1994, BBC Arabic Television was launched by Rome-based Orbit Communications Company (owned by

King Fahd Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (; 1920, 1921 or 1923 – 1 August 2005) was King of Saudi Arabia, King and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia from 13 June 1982 until his death in 2005. Prior to his ascension, he was Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia from 1 ...

's cousin, Prince Khalid ibn Abdullah) and a subsidiary of the Saudi Arabian Mawarid Holding. On 21 April 1996, it was "pulled off the air" following an episode of ''

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'' that was critical of the

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

n government. Ian Richardson, who set up the news department during that time blamed the short life of the channel on a clash with the owners over content.

During the short life of BBC Arabic Television, there were several angry ‘liaison meetings’ with Orbit and the guarantees of editorial independence proved to be a sour joke, only barely obscured by a thin smokescreen about the BBC's alleged failure to observe "cultural sensitivities" – Saudi code for anything not to the
Royal Family A royal family is the immediate family of monarchs and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term papal family describes the family of a pope, while th ...
's liking. When it became clear to Orbit and Mawarid that it had, in their terms, created a monster not prepared to toe the Saudi line, it was only a matter of time before there would be a final parting of the ways.

Many of the staff who worked for the original BBC Arabic Television service were eventually employed by

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pro ...

, now one of BBC Arabic Television's main competitors. Plans to relaunch the channel were announced in October 2005 and broadcasting was to start in Autumn 2007, but was delayed until 2008. The channel eventually relaunched at 0956 GMT on 11 March 2008, with the first news bulletin airing at 10:00. Initially broadcasting for 12 hours a day, 24-hour programming began on 19 January 2009.

Funding

BBC Arabic Television is run by the

. Initially it was funded from a grant-in-aid from the British

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but in 2014 funding was switched to come from the

television licence A television licence or broadcast receiving licence is a payment required in many countries for the reception of television broadcasts or the possession of a television set. In some countries, a licence is also required to own a radio or rece ...

that is mainly used to fund the BBC's domestic broadcasting. The service is based in the Peel Wing of

Broadcasting House London Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. T ...

in London. In 2011, as the

British government His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

cut funding to the BBC, leading the

to close down its services in five languages, the government simultaneously increased funding to the BBC Arabic service, in the words of Foreign Secretary

William Hague William Jefferson Hague, Baron Hague of Richmond (born 26 March 1961) is a British politician and life peer who was Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1997 to 2001 and Deputy Leader from 2005 to 2010. He was th ...

, to "assist the BBC Arabic Service to continue their valuable work in the region"."BBC World Service receives government funding boost"
BBC, 22 June 2011

Service

BBC Arabic can also be seen vi
bbc.co.uk/Arabic/
The website includes a 16:9 live stream of the channel. The channel broadcasts 24 hours a day, showing live news programmes mixed with current affairs programmes, documentaries and occasional light entertainment. ''Newshour'', an hour-long news bulletin is broadcast every evening at 18:00 GMT. Other daily programmes are Nuqtat Hewar (16:06 GMT, a phone-in programme), and BBC Trending (15:00 GMT, looking at the news agenda from a social media perspective). BBC news bulletins of either 30 or 60 minutes in duration are broadcast throughout the day, covering stories by journalists and correspondents around the world.

References

External links

*
BBC Press Release

* Faisal Abbas:
BBC Arabic TV 'should try to be different
" ''BBC'' 12 March 2008 * Eric Pfanner:

in ''New York Times'' 4 March 2008 *
BBC launches Arabic TV channel
" ''BBC'' 11 March 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Bbc Arabic Television 1994 establishments in the United Kingdom 24-hour television news channels in the United Kingdom Arab mass media Arabic-language television stations BBC News channels International BBC television channels Television channels and stations established in 1994 Television channels and stations disestablished in 1996 Television channels and stations established in 2008