Alarab news channel confirmed by year-end

Billionaire Saudi media mogul, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz’s promised new Arabic-language news channel, Alarab, is to launch by the end of the year, Advanced Television reports.

Based in Bahrain, the all-news channel will directly compete with Al Jazeera, MBC’s Al Arabiya, Sky News Arabia plus dozens of other news outlets including Nile News out of Cairo.

The prince is a major shareholder in 21st Century Fox, and owns the Rotana movies-to-music suite of channels.

Alarab, based at Bahrain’s World Trade Centre, has a partnership agreement with Bloomberg and will transmit 5 hours of business-focused news during the day.