Second Al Arabiya channel to launch

Wednesday 14 Dec 2011
Sheikh Walid bin Ibrahim Al Ibrahim, chairman of MBC Group, has announced the imminent launch of a second Al Arabiya channel.

The new channel promises to follow in the footsteps of the first one in keeping Arab audiences constantly updated, especially in the light of the latest changes in the region.

The new channel will be called Al Arabiya 2 al-Hadath (Arabic for “the event”), Al Arabiya reported.

“Those changes made it very difficult for one single channel to follow and report on everything,” Mr Al Ibrahim said in an interview with the Saudi newspaper al-Jazirah.

“We also have to bear in mind the fact that many other important events are happening in countries in which there is no Arab Spring and we have to follow these as well, so we ended up racing against time,” he said

Launching a new channel, the MBC chairman added, was also important in the light of the increasing popularity of the channel among non-Arabic speakers.

No date has been set for the launch of the channel.

Al Arabiya 2 al-Hadath will offer in-depth analysis of news and live transmission of events as they happen. It will also air documentaries and economic, sports, and entertainment programmes.

Al Arabiya News Channel began broadcasting in March 2003 and is watched in the Middle East, the Asia Pacific, Southeast Asia, North Africa, Europe, the Americas, and Australia. Al Arabiya is headquartered in Dubai.