Sunday’s hot date for Sky News Arabia
May 4, 2012
By Chris Forrester
Sky News Arabia (SNA) launches on Sunday May 6th at 7pm local time. As well as being available FTA over the wider MENA region the Arabic-language channel has signed carriage deals with Orbit/Showtime and Abu Dhabi, both of which will carry its news in high-definition.
Additional cable/DSL deals are in place with Etisalet and ‘du’ IPTV platforms. The channel will be carried by Nilesat, Arabsat and on Livestation’s web-based distribution system.
It is expected that Sky News Arabia will also shortly be available over the UK on the BSkyB digital platform, and free-to-air from SES Astra over the rest of Europe.
SNA is also ready for ‘second screens’ with Apps available for most ‘Smart’ phones and tablets, as well as an on-line service.
Nart Bouran, head of Sky News Arabia, said: “The key objective of any news organisation is to provide accurate, independent breaking news 24-hours-a-day to the widest possible audience. With these distribution deals, Sky News Arabia can deliver on that promise, online, on mobile and tablet devices and with the widest reach on television. “Our fresh, fast paced, continuous rolling news coverage and our completely integrated multimedia offering means our viewers get the breaking news first, whenever they want, in the format they want it.”