Al Jazeera now available in Ghana

Jazeera English expands in Africa

OVER 20mn households in sub-Saharan Africa now view the English channel of Al Jazeera, a spokesperson for the network has said.

Following a raft of new distribution partnerships across the continent, Al Jazeera English is now available in Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Al Jazeera English already reaches over 130mn households worldwide and Al Jazeera Arabic is available in over 50mn homes.

The network has 13 bureaus spread across the region, from Morocco to South Africa, and is the only international broadcaster with a permanent office in Zimbabwe.

“Our continuing reach in Africa is further evidence of the network’s strong year of growth and we’re confident that 2009 will see us move even further ahead,” said regional head of distribution sales Martin Ryan. Meanwhile, the network has launched its English and Arabic news channels on Turksat’s new digital cable platform.

The launch of the channels will substantially increase Al Jazeera’s presence where it already broadcasts to over 8mn households.

Director of global distribution Phil Lawrie said the continued expansion in Turkey was integral to the growth of the network in the region and its international distribution efforts. Both Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera Arabic are already carried on Turksat’s free-to-air satellite DTH platform (reaching 6mn households) and Al Jazeera English is carried on Digiturk’s DTH service (to 2mn homes).