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Alwaleed to launch news channel

Written by AdNation Editor, Wednesday, 05 May 2010

In an interview with Bloomberg last week, Saudi billionaire, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal suggested he may be looking at launching a regional news channel, to go up against Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera.

Alwaleed said the channel would not be produced through either Rotana or Kingdom Holding, and that he'd be "borrowing" the business model from Rupert Murdoch's Fox News and Sky News. Hopefully, he'll stick to borrowing only the business model, and avoid hiring any frothingly insane presenters in an attempt to keep up with Fox.

It will be interesting to see how the new channel positions itself if and when it arrives. Al Jazeera pretty much owns the "voice of the Arab street" schtick, while Al Arabiya has gone for the more 'grown-up' approach, claiming to offer a more objective take on stories. Where would Alwaleed's channel fit in? Particularly given that Dubai's One TV has also cornered the "Turn every story into a labyrinth of nonsensical babbling" market.

One thing is certain: If Alwaleed decides to launch a news channel, he has the money to do a genuinely decent job of it. Whether or not he will is a different matter.

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