Breaking: Aljazeera Sport Channel New Satellite Frequencies on ArabSat, Hotbird and NileSat

After the Nilesat signal issues Al Jazeera Sport Channel suffered today they announced theri new frequencies on Arabsat, Hotbird and Nilesat:

12 comments June 12th, 2010

Aljazeera Sport Channel Signal Problems on Nile Sat (Apology and Explanation)

So basically there were signal issues during the South Africa VS Mexico match on all Aljazeera Sports channels on Nilesat, both the free-to-air and the subscription based channels except the HD channel which is actually on on Atlantic Bird 4A.

So that is why I did not have any issues as I was watching the HD channel, but after the match I realized that people are angry and that Aljazeera Sports announced that viewers have to switch to either arabsat or noorsat.

So what really happened?

The word going around is that Aljazeera Sports Channels has ruined the deal the Egyptians had to show 22 matches from the 64 matches of the world cup, and it is said that it cost them $120 million, so when Aljazeera Sports Channel announced that they too will be showing those 22 matches on their free-to-air channels “they” decided to cause damage to Aljazeera channels on the nilesat.

Now thats what is being said, and it seems Aljazeera Sports Channel is on the safe side here and nile sat will end up having a big problem, cause Aljazeera which already had tensions with Egypt on both the news and the sports channels will most likely be going to the court with this.

2 comments June 11th, 2010

Watch the US Presidential Elections 2008 in the Middle East (FULL NEWS CHANNELS TV GUIDE)

I wont be exaggerating at all if I say that the whole world will be watching carefully on the 4th of November 2008, wishing their favorite candidate win. The latest international polls have favored Barack Obama, and the USA polls gives him around a 12 to 13 points lead. But the race is not over, many factors play part here, McCain was down before and ended up winning the republican party nomination, then there is the Bradley Effect.

The Bradley Effect is where a white voter would say in polls he would vote to the African-American candidate but when voting in the voting booth he will end up voting for the other WHITE candidate, so basically racists being shy of their racism and lying to the pollsters. This happened in 1982 while electing California’s governor,  Tom Bradley lost the elections although he was ahead in some polls. I do not believe that the Bradley effect happened or will happen to Obama, we already saw in the primaries how he hold close to the polls even in some places thought to be heavily racist, areas that has a very bad reputation with race discrimination.

So where will those who live in the Middle East watch the elections? Well, there is the free-to-air channels and the Subscription (PAY TV) channels.

Lets start with the PAY TV Channels:
ORBIT: The best network to watch all the action, all year long ORBIT is actually the best place to watch the American politics on their channel “ORBIT NEWS”, shows from MSNBC, NBC, ABC, PBS and BBC. In the last week of the elections since the 27 of October 2008 Orbit launched another news channel “ORBIT NEWS 2″. “ORBIT NEWS 3″ will be launched on the election day.

It has been announced that “ORBIT NEWS 1″ will feature:

• Brian Williams from NBC Nightly News
• Charles Gibson from ABC’s World News
• Jim Lehrer from News Hour on PBS
• Tom Brokaw from NBC’s Meet the Press

While “ORBIT NEWS 2″ will feature famous political commentators from MSNBC:

• Keith Olbermann (Countdown)
• Rachel Maddow (The Rachel Maddow Show)
• Chris Mathews (Hardball)
• David Gregory (Race to the White House)

ORBIT NEWS 3 will starts on the Elections day and it will air a live feed from ABC channel. It will precisely launch at 1:00 AM KSA time.

ART [Firstnet - Pehla]: Not a great choice, as ART only has FOX NEWS and SKY NEWS. FOX NEWS has the worst reputation as the most biased name in news, although ironically their slogan is “Fair & Balanced”. SKY NEWS is not bad but I doubt their coverage would be as good as CNN and MSNBC.

Showtime Arabia: Showtime is by far the worst choice, as they only provide only SKY NEWS, I am not sure though if Bloomberg & CNBC would show any coverage of the elections, if they do then you might follow it on those to FINANCIAL channels.

FREE-TO-AIR Channels:
CNN: The best source in my opinion, great panel of analysts and they have the resources to produce an astonishing full day coverage of the elections. Were very good in covering the primaries.

MBC4: If they do stick with the CBS schedule they will be one of the best channels to watch too, CBS coverage will be interesting to watch, that is if MBC4 cancels their regular schedule and stick with CBS as they have the rights to CBS News.

Aljazeera English: Really Really unbiased, am not being sarcastic this is for real, they are unbiased so much that I get bored watching it, they even cover the other candidates such as Ralph Nader and Bob Barr !! While the American mainstream media shoved them aside.

Other choices in English language: BBC World News, EuroNews, France 24, DW-TV, Russia Today, Press TV, NDTV Arabia

Other choices in Arabic language: Aljazeera Arabic, Al Arabiya, BBC Arabic, Future News, Al Aan TV, Al Ekhbariya, France 24, Rusiya Al-Yaum (Russia Today), Al Hiwar TV, Alhurra (The Free One), Nile News, NBN, ANN, CNBC Arabia (NOT SURE)

WATCH ONLINE:
It is expected that either all or some of the following channels will be streaming their election day coverage for free online: CNN, MSNBC, FOX NEWS, ABC, and CBS.

You can also watch The following channels in a very good quality via Livestation: Aljazeera English, BBC World News, BBC Arabic, Bloomberg, C-Span, DW-TV, EuroNews, France 24, ITN, Russia Today (English), Rusiya Al-Yaum (Russia Today), BBC World Service (Radio), DW-Radio.

Livestation also includes many user added channels, you can simply either search by name or check the channel list available.

Bottom Line: 
We in the Middle East can’t vote, and the majority do not believe that the election is clean, seriously we all are set in thinking the US Elections is rigged, just like 2000. We do not believe that it is fair, especially that there is no equal coverage to other parties other than Democratic party and the Republican part. Most of us do not give a crap and most of us think it is just BS. But I am sure that most of people in the middle east, Arabs, Asians, Europeans, South American, Muslim and Christians will watch.

Some have watched the American elections since last year as if they are watching a reality TV show, a bit longer than American Idol I guess, and some watched it seriously following each and every article written about it. Some believe that it effects all of the world and some believe it will only affect Americans. I believe the whole world have hated the past 8 years, they hated Bush’s foreign policy and domestic policy, in the end all will watch and will wait to know who is the next president for USA hoping change come to Washington and we start seeing some difference in the way things work. Some might laugh and call it naivete, and some will call it hope.

4 comments October 30th, 2008

Fox Movies Channel to Launch on May in the Middle East [Update]

It seems that Rotana found that the Arab World is lacking in Movie Channels and/or we are not watching enough movies. So they felt the desperate need in finding a way to fill this huge void.

Oh Rotana what could have we done without you, well, maybe watch MBC2 or Dubai ONE TV or or or or….. Go to the cinema?! maybe rent a DVD, No…!

Ok, so what is so special about this channel? Does it show the latest of the latest movies, not exactly, it has been rumored that it will show movies as they were supposed to be watched…. UNCENSORED.

I realllllllly doubt that it is true, on NileSat and a free to air channel, that would be impossible. But some claim that they will depend on showing a warning before the movie. And their list of movies does include some questionable titles.

Most people who are into movies subscribes to Showtime, and this channel wont make any difference. The latest FOX movies go to Showtime and ORBIT anyway. So I guess this channel will make some noise for a week or so and then fade in the background.

My advice to those who care, DELETE this channel from your receivers even if they will censor, just don’t expose your kids and families to this CRAP.

UPDATE: FOX MOVIES press release states that the channel WILL actually censor all inappropriate scenes from the movies because of this region’s special traditions. And that some of the most famous movies will be selected to be dubbed in Arabic. And the press release also announced that later this year there will be another channel released for American series with the same brand name FOX.

13 comments April 27th, 2008