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11/1 Jurists want to stay in Oudemanhuispoort

8/2 Mayor’s portrait

8/2 Websites for social cohesion

7/2 Spreading tourism proceeds with difficulty

7/2 GroenLinks on districts: Be a man

6/2 Zuideramstel opens new office on Sabbath

5/2 The truth about integration

4/2 Wilders has little support on Amsterdam

3/2 Elite involved in neighbourhood

2/2 Johnnie Walker avoids taxes in Amsterdam

1/2 Rotterdam to tinker with district councils as well

31/1 Wooden rowing boats to disappear from Amstel

31/1 ZeeburgTV launched

27/1 Privacy activists to mess up loyalty card system

27/1 A few were still coughing, but that was an act

27/1 Chrisis in de Baarsjes

26/1 Youth have positive view of districts

24/1 Action groups call for Carmel and Jaffa boycott

24/1 PvdA members dismiss plan for districts

23/1 KLM takes on crisis with new uniform

23/1 District office not squatted

21/1 Merge districts

20/1 Closing squat bar Vrankrijk not necessary

20/1 Cleaners welcome new Schiphol director

18/1 Palestine at the Jewish Historical Museum

18/1 What is the right size for a district?

17/1 PvdA Oost against fewer districts

16/1 Committee: 7 districts by 2010

15/1 Soldiers may attend Afghanistan debate after all

15/1 Bait bike leads to arrest

14/1 Youth for Christ to republish vacancies

13/1 Paintings of the Zuidas

13/1 New Youth for Christ contoversy

11/1 Social cohesion initiative raises eyebrows

10/1 Fewer districts in 2010

10/1 Zuidas: People feel that we are losers

9/1 Fun on the ice - but not for all

9/1 Supermarket coupon fraud thwarted

9/1 I Amsterdam must remain exclusive

8/1 Use term Apartheid in every discussion

8/1 No city kiosk in Amsterdam yet

7/1 Snow

7/1 Fatima Elatik to run Zeeburg

7/1 Municipal managers to return to shop floor

4/1 Police: take photo of strange people

3/1 Gaza protest criticises politicians

1/1 Thousands to protest against attacks on Gaza

1/1 Mustapha Laboui leaves district council

 

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Al Jazeera ‘piece of cake’

22 November 2006 – Cable provider Essent was the first to distribute the English-language Al Jazeera International on Dutch cable. In Amsterdam, the channel will not be available until January, if at all.

A week ago, Al Jazeera International has been launched. It is the English-language version of the television channel from Qatar, known among other things for broadcasting Ossama bin Laden’s video messages, as well as footage from the Iraq war.

An Essent representative had met someone from Al Jazeera at a congress in Vienna, and had told him that the cable provider would like to carry the new channel. Al Jazeera was immediately enthusiastic. “It was a piece of cake”, says Essent spokesperson Jeroen Brouwer. Essent does not have to pay Al Jazeera for distributing the channel.

Essent is active in a large part of the Netherlands, but not in the urban Randstad area, where one might perhaps expect more interest in Al Jazeera. Brouwer: “We will not attract hundreds of thousands of viewers with this, but that is not necessary”.

“Research among customers has revealed an interest in high-quality international news channels. People do not want to see the world only through the eye of CNN”. Al Jazeera has been included in a digital TV package, costing 8.95 euro per month.

AMSTERDAM
In Amsterdam, Al Jazeera International is not available on cable yet, but provider UPC is seriously considering carrying the network. UPC makes changes in its package only four times per year. This means that the new channel may be included in January.

However, spokesperson Mark Zellenrath emphasises that a decision has yet to be taken, and that negotiations with Al Jazeera will have to take place first. These will concern among other things the handling of copyrights.

In any case, the channel will not be offered to subscribers to ‘normal’ analogous cable TV, among other things because UPC wants to make digital TV more attractive. Earlier, the company was criticised for the aggressive way in which it tries to sell digital TV.

Because of the fierce competition among digital TV providers, UPC declines to reveal how many Amsterdammers have subscribed to its digital TV. Nationally, 425,000 have done so, which is about twenty percent of all UPC cable subscribers.

UPDATE 23 November 2006 - Media observer Mauzz comments that Al Jazeera International can easily be received free of charge through a satellite dish.

 

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