By Kevin McCauley
Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has picked Bahrain to host Alarab, a 24-hour satellite TV channel that will compete with Al-Jazerra. Bahrain, the site of a bloody crackdown by the Sunni monarchy against the Shiite majority, is closely aligned with Saudi Arabi.
Alawaleed had considered locating Alarab in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Beirut, Cairo and Doha, where Al Jazerra is located. The Prince has promised that Alarab will provide objective programming of political, economic and social events in the Arab world.
Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi, media advisor to Saudi Arabia and former editor-in-chief of Al-Watan, will lead Alarab.
Bloomberg has agreed to provide five hours of daily financial and economic news programming.
Alwalweed, nephew of Saudi Arabia King Abdullah and the richest Arab businessman, made news earlier this month by investing $300M in Twitter. His Kingdom Holding called that deal part of its strategy to “invest in promising, high-growth businesses with a global impact.”
Alwalweed also is the second largest investor in Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. |