Al Jazeera English expands in Europe - but can it crack the US?

(AP Photo/ Hamid Jalaudin)

Al Jazeera English is now available in 20 million homes in the UK, following the launch of the news station on the country's 'Freeview' TV network.

The Qatar-based channel was previously available only via Sky's pay-TV service and Freesat, but has doubled its potential audience in the UK with today's launch on the digital TV platform - which, as its name suggests, is free to view.

Al Anstey, director of media development for the Al Jazeera Network, told MediaGuardian yesterday that this "breakthrough" move would give AJE "reach to more than 80 per cent of homes in the UK".

The move underlines the 'mass market' approach taken by the station, as it aggressively pursues different distribution channels to attract as large an audience - and, in the future, ad revenue - as it can. The channel has been available for free via the web for the last 18 months, and AJE is looking to boost availability on mobile and iPad.

But despite its expansion in the UK and the digital sphere, Al Jazeera English has failed to crack another potentially lucrative market: the US. For despite launching in a few US states last year, the channel has found it "virtually impossible" to win space on American cable and satellite networks, according to a report by AP. In the same report, AJE's managing director Tony Burman blamed the "very aggressive hostility" toward Al Jazeera from the Bush administration, but said that "we're really determined to make a breakthrough in New York".

Critics of AJE accuse it of being anti-US and anti-western, claiming that it focuses too heavily on issues in which Arabs are seen as "victims". Others says that the channel has failed to criticise its financial backers, the Qatar government.

On top of this, there is AJE's sister channel Al Jazeera Arabic, which gained renown after the September 11 attacks, when it became the preferred destination for militant groups, particularly al Qa'eda, to send recorded messages. This led to many conservatives and the Bush administration at the time labelling it a "mouthpiece for terror".

None of this bodes particularly well for AJE in the US, in terms of both distribution and advertising deals. But the potential of the US market is clear: According to the AJE's managing director, quoted by Forbes last year, 60 per cent of the channel's internet traffic is from North America.

Admittedly, AJE is young - it launched just three and a half years ago. And according to a spokesman for the company, the current phase of Al Jazeera English's development is "brand building and distribution", as opposed to revenue generation. But when that changes, the pressure to crack the US market will, undoubtedly, intensify.