Sky News Arabia

Sky News Arabia (stylized as Sky News عربية; Arabic: سكاي نيوز عربية, romanized: Skāy Nyūz ʻArabīyah) is an Arabic 24-hour rolling news channel broadcast mainly in the Middle East and North Africa. It is a joint venture between UK-based Sky Group and International Media Investments Company (IMI), a privately owned investment company. The channel is branded as Sky News, and it was launched on 6 May 2012 at 16:00 GMT.

This article is about the Pan Arab channel. For the British channel, see Sky News. For the Australian channel, see Sky News Australia. For the defunct Irish channel, see Sky News Ireland.

Sky News Arabia
Broadcast areaWestern Asia
HeadquartersAbu Dhabi
Programming
Language(s)Arabic
Picture format576i (16:9 SDTV)
1080i (HDTV)
Ownership
OwnerSky Group (Comcast) (50%)
Abu Dhabi Media Investment Corporation (50%)
Sister channelsSky News
History
Launched6 May 2012 (2012-05-06)
Links
Websitewww.skynewsarabia.com
Availability
Streaming media
Sky News ArabiaWatch live
Sling TVInternet Protocol television

The channel's headquarters are based in Abu Dhabi and it has a network of bureaux across MENA, along with offices in London and Washington, DC. It also shares access to Sky News' wider international bureaux network.[1]

History

BSkyB and Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan first announced a 50/50 joint venture to operate a free-to-air Arabic-language all-news channel on 29 November 2010.[2] Adrian Wells, head of international news at Sky News, was appointed to lead preparations to launch the channel.[1]

In February 2011, Nart Bouran was hired as Sky News Arabia's first director of news. Bouran was previously director of television at Reuters.[3] Yasser Thabet, former program director at the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya, joined Sky News Arabia as director of output in June 2011 and Nicholas Love was appointed as director of finance.[4]

Al-Waleed bin Talal, the second-largest shareholder in 21st Century Fox, which at the time had a 39.1% stake in BSkyB, announced in September 2011 that he would launch another Arabic news channel, Al-Arab News Channel.[5] The channel closed on the same day it launched.

Preparations at the network's headquarters in the twofour54 media SEZ of Abu Dhabi, began in February 2012.[6][7] It began broadcasting on 6 May 2012.[8][9]

On 8 November 2015, Sky News Arabia launched its own radio station at 90.3 FM, which was originally the home of BBC World Service in Arabic. The radio station is live-anchored and broadcasts news, weather, sports, traffic and stock market updates and political discussions in randomized blocks. Specialized segments are created specifically for morning, early afternoon, and early evening hours. Several television programmes can also be heard as well.[10]

Broadcasting

Sky News Arabia officially claims a commitment to independent reporting and avoiding partisan programming.[11] A six-person editorial advisory committee is said to exercise oversight over the network's editorial output.[11]

Sky News Arabia is broadcast to more than 50 million households in the MENA region on satellite and cable providers, as well as over the internet and mobile apps.[12][13] It is available free-to-air on Nilesat 201, Arabsat, Hot Bird and Astra.[14][15][16]

It is available in the United States, Canada, South America, Australia and New Zealand through myTV's platform.[17] It is also available on Sky Channel 788 in the United Kingdom and Ireland, + on Virgin Media.

Facilities

Sky News Arabia's headquarters are in Abu Dhabi's twofour54 media township. The technical integration process at the studio was carried out from April 2011 to February 2012 in collaboration with Television Systems Limited.[18]

The facility consists of one large single studio, which houses several permanent sets used for different programs. It also consists of a 10-meter-wide video wall.[18]

Controversy

As the channel is jointly owned with Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, concerns were raised about its editorial independence initially when it launched as well as during later geopolitical events.[1][19]

In 2017, during the Qatar diplomatic crisis, Sky News Arabia aired an Emirati-backed documentary that allegedly claimed Qatar's government was linked to al-Qaeda member Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.[20] The official Qatar News Agency, which claimed to have been hacked prior to the diplomatic crisis, later assigned law firm Carter-Ruck to file a complaint to the British media regulator Ofcom against Sky News Arabia, alongside Al Arabiya, for "violating impartiality code and accuracy in news’ sourcing".[21]

Following the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, the channel broadcast pro-Saudi coverage which included reports, as well as statements from commentators, directed against Qatar and Turkey.[22]

References
  1. Sweney, Mark (29 November 2010). "Sky News teams up with Sheikh Mansour to launch Arabic TV channel". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 December 2011.
  2. "Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed invests in Arabic Sky News". The National. 29 November 2010. Retrieved 3 July 2012.
  3. Luft, Oliver (14 April 2011). "Sky News Arabia appoints Reuters man as news director". Press Gazette. Archived from the original on 9 September 2012. Retrieved 19 December 2011.
  4. "Sky News Arabia Appoints Senior Editorial Team". Sky News Arabia. 9 August 2011. Archived from the original on 21 February 2012. Retrieved 23 February 2012.
  5. Bladd, Joan (27 September 2011). "Sky News Arabia says on track for 2012 launch". Arabian Business. Retrieved 19 December 2011.
  6. Flanagan, Ben (9 February 2012). "Sky News Arabia ready for broadcast". The National. Archived from the original on 11 February 2012. Retrieved 9 February 2012.
  7. Flanagan, Ben (28 July 2011). "Sky News Arabia plan rolls on". The National. Retrieved 19 December 2011.
  8. "Latest Arabic news channel, Sky News Arabia, begins broadcasting from UAE capital Abu Dhabi". The Washington Post. Associated Press. 6 May 2012. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
  9. "United Arab Emirates profile". BBC. 27 August 2013. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
  10. "Sky News Arabia Launches Specialized Radio Segments on 90.3 FM". MENA Herald. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  11. Chulov, Martin (6 May 2012). "SkyB launches Sky News Arabia". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
  12. Flanagan, Ben (6 May 2012). "Sky News launches in UAE". The National. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
  13. Flanagan, Ben (7 May 2012). "Viewers can now reach for Sky". The National. Archived from the original on 8 May 2012. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
  14. "Sky News Arabia set for May 6 launch". Trade Arabia. 28 April 2012. Retrieved 4 May 2012.
  15. "Sky News Arabia signs up with major TV platforms". Trade Arabia. 3 May 2012. Retrieved 4 May 2012.
  16. "Sky News Arabia launches on Sky Digital". BizAsia. 28 February 2013. Archived from the original on 1 March 2013. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  17. "Channels". myTV. Archived from the original on 28 June 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  18. El Ajou, Nadeen (9 February 2012). "Sky News Arabia moves into its new state-of-the-art studio complex". AMEinfo. Archived from the original on 12 February 2012. Retrieved 9 February 2012.
  19. Kasolowsky, Raissa (8 May 2012). "BSkyB enters Arab TV fray with Abu Dhabi royal". Reuters. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
  20. "Analysis | UAE touts film linking rival Qatar to 9/11 attacks". The Washington Post. 25 July 2017. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
  21. Staff, M. E. O. (20 June 2017). "Qatar files complaints against Al-Arabiya and Sky News Arabia". Middle East Observer. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
  22. Williams, Christopher (22 October 2018). "Sky News drawn into Saudi propaganda battle over murder of Jamal Khashoggi". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
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