Sky News Arabia

Sky News Arabia (stylised as Sky News عربية) (Arabic: سكاي نيوز عربية‎ Skāy Nyūz ʻArabīyah) is an Arabic 24-hour rolling news channel broadcast mainly in the Middle East and North Africa. It is a joint venture between UK-based Sky Group and Abu Dhabi Media Investment Corporation (ADMIC), owned by Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi Emirate ruling family. The channel uses Sky News brand and was launched on 6 May 2012.

This article is about the Pan Arab channel. For the British channel, see Sky News. For the Australian channel, see Sky News Australia. For the defunct Irish channel, see Sky News Ireland.

Sky News Arabia
Launched6 May 2012 (2012-05-06)
Owned bySky Group (Comcast) (50%)
Abu Dhabi Media Investment Corporation (50%)
Picture format576i (16:9 SDTV)
1080i (HDTV)
Sloganالخبر كل الخبر (The whole story)
LanguageArabic
Broadcast areaWorldwide
HeadquartersAbu Dhabi
Sister channel(s)Sky News
Websitewww.skynewsarabia.com
Availability
Satellite
Sky (UK & Ireland)Channel 788 (SD)
Nilesat 201 (7°W)11977 - V - 27500 - 5/6
(HD and SD)
Arabsat Badr-4 (26°E)11996 - H - 27500 - 3/4 (SD)
OSN (MENA)
  • Channel 450 (HD)
  • Channel 451 (SD)
Astra 2F (28.2°E)12148 H - 27500 - 5/6 (SD)
Hot Bird (13°C)11747 H - 27500 - 3/4 (SD)
Cable
Mozaic TV (Qatar)Channel 105 (SD)
IPTV
Etisalat eLifeChannel 234
duChannel 16
Streaming media
Sky News ArabiaWatch live
LivestationWatch live
Sling TVInternet Protocol Television

The channel is based in Abu Dhabi's twofour54 media zone and has a network of bureaux across MENA, along with offices in London and Washington, DC. It also shares access to Sky News' wider international bureaux network.[1]

History

BSkyB and Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan first announced a 50/50 joint venture to operate a free-to-air Arabic-language all-news channel on 29 November 2010.[2] Adrian Wells, head of international news at Sky News, was appointed to lead preparations to launch the channel.[1]

In February 2011, Nart Bouran was hired as Sky News Arabia's first director of news. Bouran was previously director of television at Reuters.[3] Yasser Thabet, former program director at Al Arabiya, joined Sky News Arabia as director of output in June 2011 and Nicholas Love was appointed as director of finance.[4]

Al-Waleed bin Talal, the second-largest shareholder in 21st Century Fox, which has a 39.1% stake in BSkyB, announced in September 2011 that he would launch another Arabic news channel, Alarab News Channel.[5] That station closed on the same day it launched.

Operations at the network's headquarters in twofour54 media zone, Abu Dhabi, began in February 2012.[6][7] It began broadcasting on 6 May 2012.[8][9]

On 8 November 2015, Sky News Arabia launched its own radio station at 90.3 FM, which was originally the home of BBC World Service in Arabic. It is a live-anchored all-news station offering general news, weather, sports, traffic, stock market updates and political discussion in randomized blocks. Specialized segments are created specifically for morning, early afternoon, and early evening hours. Several television programmes can also be heard as well.[10]

Broadcasting

Sky News Arabia claims a commitment to independent reporting and avoiding partisan programming.[11] A six-person editorial advisory committee exercises oversight over the network's editorial output.[11]

Sky News Arabia is broadcast to more than 50 million households in the MENA region on satellite and cable providers, as well as over the internet and mobile apps.[12][13] It is available free-to-air on Nilesat 201, Arabsat, Hot Bird and Astra.[14][15][16]

It is available in the United States, Canada, South America, Australia and New Zealand through myTV's platform.[17] It is also available to watch on Sky channel 788 in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Facilities

Sky News Arabia's headquarters are located in Abu Dhabi's twofour54 media zone. The technical integration process at the studio was carried out from April 2011 to February 2012 in collaboration with Television Systems Limited.[18]

The facility consists of one large single studio which houses a number of permanent sets used for different programs. It also consists of a 10-meter wide video wall.[18]

gollark: Obviously this will have to know when a process exits so it can restart it, but people want to be able to stop/start/restart a service.
gollark: I see. So for my thing I suppose I'll just have to have a thread waiting for each process (ugh, but what can you do) and then... hope that if I kill that, `wait` will handle it okay.
gollark: Are those just magically callbacked?
gollark: But it's also able to respond to signals and start/stop it accordingly somehow.
gollark: *But* it's also handling stdio from that process too.

References
  1. Sweney, Mark (29 November 2010). "Sky News teams up with Sheikh Mansour to launch Arabic TV channel". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 December 2011.
  2. "Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed invests in Arabic Sky News". The National. 29 November 2010. Retrieved 3 July 2012.
  3. Luft, Oliver (14 April 2011). "Sky News Arabia appoints Reuters man as news director". Press Gazette. Archived from the original on 9 September 2012. Retrieved 19 December 2011.
  4. "Sky News Arabia Appoints Senior Editorial Team". Sky News Arabia. 9 August 2011. Archived from the original on 21 February 2012. Retrieved 23 February 2012.
  5. Bladd, Joan (27 September 2011). "Sky News Arabia says on track for 2012 launch". Arabian Business. Retrieved 19 December 2011.
  6. Flanagan, Ben (9 February 2012). "Sky News Arabia ready for broadcast". The National. Archived from the original on 11 February 2012. Retrieved 9 February 2012.
  7. Flanagan, Ben (28 July 2011). "Sky News Arabia plan rolls on". The National. Retrieved 19 December 2011.
  8. "Latest Arabic news channel, Sky News Arabia, begins broadcasting from UAE capital Abu Dhabi". The Washington Post. Associated Press. 6 May 2012. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
  9. "United Arab Emirates profile". BBC. 27 August 2013. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
  10. "Sky News Arabia Launches Specialized Radio Segments on 90.3 FM"". MENA Herald. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  11. Chulov, Martin (6 May 2012). "SkyB launches Sky News Arabia". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
  12. Flanagan, Ben (6 May 2012). "Sky News launches in UAE". The National. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
  13. Flanagan, Ben (7 May 2012). "Viewers can now reach for Sky". The National. Archived from the original on 8 May 2012. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
  14. "Sky News Arabia set for May 6 launch". Trade Arabia. 28 April 2012. Retrieved 4 May 2012.
  15. "Sky News Arabia signs up with major TV platforms". Trade Arabia. 3 May 2012. Retrieved 4 May 2012.
  16. "Sky News Arabia launches on Sky Digital". BizAsia. 28 February 2013. Archived from the original on 1 March 2013. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  17. "Channels". myTV. Archived from the original on 28 June 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  18. El Ajou, Nadeen (9 February 2012). "Sky News Arabia moves into its new state-of-the-art studio complex". AMEinfo. Archived from the original on 12 February 2012. Retrieved 9 February 2012.
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