Al Jazeera Marketing Analysis
Al Jazeera – Case Analysis
History and Current Growth Al Jazeera was set up in the mid 1990’s by Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. During this time the BBC was attempting to set up an independent News cannel in the Middle East, basing them selves in Saudi Arabia. They were unable to do this due to the Saudi government not allowing the BBC full editorial freedom. This resulted in them abandoning their plans. The Emir of Qatar saw the opportunity to set up the first independent news channel in the area not influenced by the government. It was set up in 1996 with an initial investment of $150 million. Al Jazeera means ‘the island’ in Arabic. They also managed to recruit many of the staff that had been working for the BBC in Saudi Arabia. For the early part of its existence it was solely an Arabic current affairs channel. In the early 2000’s it began to expand it’s programming. In 2003 they launched Al Jazeera sports, which is an Arabic language sports channel. In 2005 they expanded again with Al Jazeera Mobasher, which is a live unedited political events channel, and Al Jazeera Children’s channel. 2006 brought about the companies first venture into the international market with the release of Al Jazeera English. It has since become their most successful channel in their portfolio, available in 140 million homes compared to just 50 million homes that the Arabic version is available in. They continued their expansion in 2009 with the Al Jazeera documentary channel, showing Arabic documentaries. They released their most recent channel in 2009, Baraem which is another children’s channel aimed at pre school channel aged between 3 and 6. Although he Middle East is made up of several different countries with differing cultures, there are similarities linking them, which have led to the growing success of Al Jazeera. The Middle East in general has a very large under 25 population. The Yemen, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco and Egypt are thought to have over 50% of
History and Current Growth Al Jazeera was set up in the mid 1990’s by Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. During this time the BBC was attempting to set up an independent News cannel in the Middle East, basing them selves in Saudi Arabia. They were unable to do this due to the Saudi government not allowing the BBC full editorial freedom. This resulted in them abandoning their plans. The Emir of Qatar saw the opportunity to set up the first independent news channel in the area not influenced by the government. It was set up in 1996 with an initial investment of $150 million. Al Jazeera means ‘the island’ in Arabic. They also managed to recruit many of the staff that had been working for the BBC in Saudi Arabia. For the early part of its existence it was solely an Arabic current affairs channel. In the early 2000’s it began to expand it’s programming. In 2003 they launched Al Jazeera sports, which is an Arabic language sports channel. In 2005 they expanded again with Al Jazeera Mobasher, which is a live unedited political events channel, and Al Jazeera Children’s channel. 2006 brought about the companies first venture into the international market with the release of Al Jazeera English. It has since become their most successful channel in their portfolio, available in 140 million homes compared to just 50 million homes that the Arabic version is available in. They continued their expansion in 2009 with the Al Jazeera documentary channel, showing Arabic documentaries. They released their most recent channel in 2009, Baraem which is another children’s channel aimed at pre school channel aged between 3 and 6. Although he Middle East is made up of several different countries with differing cultures, there are similarities linking them, which have led to the growing success of Al Jazeera. The Middle East in general has a very large under 25 population. The Yemen, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco and Egypt are thought to have over 50% of