By Kevin McCauley
Bloomberg has agreed to provide five hours of daily financial and economic news programming to Alarab, the 24-hour satellite TV channel that Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal plans to launch next year to compete with Al-Jazeera.
Bloomberg-branded reports will fwocus on the MENA markets and include features on business leaders from Saudi and Gulf region business leaders. The media giant also will provide technical assistance to Alarab.
The new channel promises a menu of objective reporting on political, economic and social events in the Arab world.
“Our alliance with Bloomberg and its credible source of financial and economic data, together with its extensive media experience, will provide the Alarab news channel with a strong and comprehensive economic platform to accurately cover Saudi Arabia, and the rest of the Arab world,” said Prince Alwaleed in a statement.
The headquarters for Alarab has not yet been selected. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Beirut and Manama are cities under consideration. Al-Jazeera is headquartered in Qatar.
Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi, media advisor to Saudi Arabia and former editor-in-chief of Al-Watan, will lead Alarab. He’s a frequent commentator on the BBC and Voice of America.
Alarab is not affiliated with Prince Alwaleed’s Kingdom Holding Co., which holds investment stakes in News Corp. and Citigroup.
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