by eviljohnius
Al Jazeera English website traffic up 2500%
[Via AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth]
Anything that can provide a new view of the world outside of the US is a good thing. The current top news providers have been failing for years so a shakeup can’t hurt. When the US media went along with the invasion of Iraq, they proved how little they had to offer. LA Times:
Tony Burman, Al Jazeera’s head of strategy for the Americas, said traffic to the satelite network’s English-language website, where a live stream of its broadcast is available, increased 2,500% during the past week of Egypt coverage. He said up to 60% of the traffic was from the United States.
In a commentary in Saturday’s Toronto Star, Burman noted that during that period, an estimated 7 million Americans have watched 50 million minutes of Al Jazeera coverage.
California-based Link TV, watched by more than 33 million American households via the DirecTV and Dish satellite systems, has been broadcasting up to 12 hours of Al Jazeera coverage daily, said Burman, former managing director of Al Jazeera English and a former editor-in-chief of CBC News.
[More]
I have been watching al Jazeera on line for the last week. Reading this article I realized that I could have gotten some of that on my TV.
I have DirecTV and Link is there. I’m watching al Jazeera on that channel right now. They are trying to explain to the world what the Superbowl is, why the President is interested and why he is having an interview with Bill O’Reilly – their explanation of who Bill O’Reilly is and what FOX news is was pretty balanced.
Thus, I can watch some real time news from the Middle East without racking up huge download penalties. Wish I had known before.
Part of the problem is that Link.TV is located right in the group of religious channels on DirecTV. I stay away from all the Christian channels when browsing so I had missed this channel.
