It’s only been a few days since Al Jazeera English launched in New York City, but a spokesperson for the network says the response so far has been overwhelmingly positive.
While most of the evidence has been anecdotal, more than 200 emails have come through the network’s Demand Al Jazeera English campaign since the NYC launch.
Al Jazeera — the network that dominated with its coverage of the Arab Spring — on Monday launched in New York City on Time Warner Cable and will be available on Verizon FiOS in the city in the coming days.
Al Jazeera English’s managing director Al Anstey told the Huffington Post this week that New York drives more traffic to the network’s website than any other city.
“New York is a very important city,” he said. “It’s looking at all directions on the globe and all directions are looking back at New York City. So it’s a truly global city. It’s got a very outward looking, diverse, intelligent audience — obviously an influential audience in some quarters as well. So it’s a key part of our strategy.”
High praise. But even before the network’s launch in New York, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton back in March called Al Jazeera “real news,” adding that the network is “literally changing people’s minds and attitudes.”
“In fact viewership of Al Jazeera is going up in the United States because it’s real news,” she said. “You may not agree with it, but you feel like you’re getting real news around the clock instead of a million commercials and, you know, arguments between talking heads and the kind of stuff that we do on our news which, you know, is not particularly informative to us, let alone foreigners.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) have also praised the network.
Anstey told Huff Post that Al Jazeera will continue its push in other U.S. cable markets. Currently, besides New York, the network is available in Washington D.C., Burlington, Vt. and Toledo, Ohio. Anstey is confident the push will pay off.
“Revenue is not our priority,” he told the New York Times. “It’s being seen.”
In the meantime, Al Jazeera English is streaming live here.
