AL JAZEERA’S MIDDLE EAST POPULARITY WANES AS ITS NORTH AMERICAN SIBLING WANTS TO LEAVE HOME

AL JAZEERA’S MIDDLE EAST POPULARITY WANES AS ITS NORTH AMERICAN SIBLING WANTS TO LEAVE HOME

JAN 19, 2006 - 4:03PM PST
by Alvin Snyder

Worldcasting has obtained exclusive comparative independent television ratings that document a steady decline in Al Jazeera's popularity among viewers in Saudi Arabia over a one-year period. That country is the most important television market in the region; 70 percent of the region's television advertising is spent there.

These consecutive 12-month ratings measure actual daily viewership of Middle East transnational television channels and not only bode ill for Al Jazeera's marquee Arabic channel; they also impact plans for Al Jazeera International, the network's new English-language service scheduled to debut in only two months.

In what can be interpreted as a move to distance itself from the home-based channel, Al Jazeera International stresses that while the new English channel is the "sibling network to Al Jazeera Arabic…(it) is independent administratively, financially and editorially."

In a monthly charting of audience ratings prepared exclusively for Worldcasting by the premier independent Middle East television survey organization IPSOS-STAT, the Saudi government-financed Al-Arabiya surpassed Al Jazeera in audience viewer rankings for the first time in the history of the two channels. IPSOS-STAT says that in 2003 and 2004 "the gap between the two stations was very big" in Saudi Arabia, with Al Jazeera holding a significant lead.

IPSOS-STAT says that the weakening viewership of Al Jazeera is not confined to Saudi Arabia, which is inhabited by some 18 million persons, "most of whom are wealthy with high purchasing power." The trend shows a weakening of Al Jazeera's former lead throughout the region, with Al Arabiya getting stronger, although Al Jazeera is still leading in Kuwait, for example.

Could it be that some Middle East viewers are tiring of Al Jazeera, which is often perceived as a more "radical and Islamic" network? This image of Al Jazeera as a conduit for terrorist videos is currently being reinforced with the video obtained from kidnappers showing Jill Carroll, the Christian Science Monitor reporter who is being held hostage, and the Osama bin Laden audio tape threatening another attack on the United States.

Al Arabiya's content is seen by IPSOS-STAT as more moderate and seemingly more in tune with what viewers want to watch, and Al Arabiya's management is given credit for being "more enlightened and visionary."

However, IPSOS-STAT's continuing monthly tracking surveys are at odds with the findings of a recent one-time Zogby International poll, which shows Al Jazeera still in the lead.

Although the results of the Zogby poll have been widely reported, most informed observers believe they are deeply flawed, and that the poll's methodology is unfamiliar to reporters whose stories have not adddressed the nuances of audience polling.

While IPSOS-STAT shows the actual viewing numbers that a channel receives, Zogby reports only audience preferences - what people say they prefer to watch, but in fact may not.

Actual viewing numbers are what most advertising agencies and media use in their promotional planning. Zogby also limited its survey to satellite channels, leaving out terrestrial channels such as Al Arabiya, whose programs can be picked up with standard roof-top or television set-top antennas and reach large numbers of viewers with easy, free access. While leading Arab television channels discredited Zogby's findings, Al Jazeera promoted them with a special program featuring Karen Hughes, the U.S. government's ranking public diplomacy official.

The apparent trend away from Al Jazeera comes at an especially inopportune moment for the Qatar-based all-news channel.

Because Al Jazeera International is scheduled to officially launch its service to the United States and Australia in March, it is hurrying to persuade cable television systems to carry its program service and get commercial sponsors to pay the bills at a time when its parent channel is hawking a kidnapper video. The controversial cable channel reportedly is not succeeding in lining up cable channels or advertisers in the United States, the world's largest commercial market.

All this is not lost on those who are putting together Al Jazeera's English channel. At its Washington, D.C., headquarters, where Worldcasting recently visited, executives are doing pre-emptive damage control by distancing themselves from the perceived news biases of the home office in the Middle East. They are emphasizing a new ethical code and independence from its Middle East parent in a region of the world where the novelty of Al Jazeera is rapidly wearing thin.