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With ‘no sustainable business model’, AJAM will shut down

A news photographer films the logo of the Al Jazeera America nightly news program, America Tonight.

Qatar-owned Al Jazeera America is shutting down in the United States amid low ratings and internal conflicts.

Al Jazeera America’s chief executive Al Anstey said in a memo Wednesday that the cable and satellite news television would “shutter its cable TV and digital operations by April 30.”

According to the CEO, the decision was “driven by the fact that our business model is simply not sustainable in light of the economic challenges in the US media marketplace.”

Anstey further described the decision as “a massive disappointment for everyone here who has worked tirelessly for our long-term future.”

Owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network, the channel was supposed to be “unlike the others, as our programming proves Al Jazeera America will air fact-based, unbiased and in-depth news," as was put by former CEO Ehab Al Shihabi in 2013, when the channel started work.

Only 20,000 to 40,000 people watch the channel during prime time, according to CNN Money.

Significant expansion

AJAM’s website added, however, that the decision “coincides” with another one by its parent company.

It was referring to a statement by the Al Jazeera Media Network, which called for a “significant expansion” of activities in the US market.

“As audiences increasingly turn to multiple platforms, including mobile devices, for news and information, this expansion will allow U.S. and non-U.S. consumers alike to access the Network’s journalism and content wherever and whenever they want,” it read. “By expanding its digital content and distribution services to now include the U.S., the Network will be better positioned to innovate and compete in an overwhelmingly digital world to serve today’s 24-hour digitally focused audience.”

Anstey also said that the AJAM employees are “a brilliant team made up of the most committed, professional, and dedicated people.”

Is Qatar’s oil price a factor?

The Qatar-based broadcaster started work in the US after buying Al Gore’s Current TV for $500 million.

Former Al Jazeera English chief Tony Burman had warned at the time that the move “has the odor of potential disaster.”

Meanwhile, oil prices, on which the owner state remained heavily dependent, was implicated as the reason for the new decision.

“AJAM has been losing staggering sums of money from the start. That has become increasingly untenable as the network’s owner and funder, the government of Qatar, is now economically struggling due to low oil prices, The Intercept said in its report, covering the news.

According to the International Monetary Fund, the Qatari government risks posting a budget deficit in 2016 amid low oil prices.

During three years of working in the US, Al Jazeera America, headquartered and run from studios on the first floor of the Manhattan Center in New York City, has also faced some lawsuits, including from former employees alleging sexism and anti-Semitism.


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