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Fact check: Why Al Jazeera isn’t carried by cable, satellite companies

There’s been a lot of speculation as to why cable and satellite companies haven’t carried Al Jazeera English prior to this weekend’s revolt in Egypt. Some say it’s because of political pressure from the American government, which has accused Al Jazeera in the past of being a mouthpiece for terrorist organizations. Others say television providers would demand Al Jazeera pay a hefty amount for carriage on an already-crowded cable and satellite spectrum.

But the fact of the matter is, the reason Al Jazeera Arabic and English hasn’t been carried in the United States is due to low consumer demand for the channels. Nothing more.

“My guess is (there’s) limited demand for use of the bandwidth,” former Comcast Customer Care leader Frank Eliason told me Sunday night via direct message on Twitter, who added those who have wanted at least the Arabic version of the channel have been getting it for years from at least one television provider.

“Dish Network typically owns the foreign channel market,” Eliason said.

Dish Network has carried Al Jazeera Arabic for years in three Arabic language packages. Dish Network also carries a sister channel in at least one package, Al Jazeera Sports. Dish Network and DirecTV both carry portions of Al Jazeera English’s scheduled through LINK TV, which is available as a substitute for those seeking public access programming on satellite.

And speaking of public access, most cable systems in the United States fill its public access programming with international channels that broadcast in English, including Deutsche Welle television. This means cable systems have access to free-to-air satellite television, which carries Al Jazeera English in North America.

The demand for Al Jazeera has increased drastically since the Qatar-based channel began covering the situation in Egypt nearly wall-to-wall since Tuesday. Al Jazeera’s web team have reported a 2,500% spike in traffic since the channel began streaming online for free (before January 28th, viewers could only access Al Jazeera on Vingo and Livestation).

Al Jazeera English is free to air on Britain’s largest free television service Freeview and is carried on nearly every pay television system in the UK, including Rupert Murdoch’s Sky satellite. Al Jazeera English is also free to carry in Canada on many cable and satellite systems thanks to a large, successful campaign by customers who demanded the channel.

Until such a campaign takes place in the United States, Americans will have to stick to watching Al Jazeera English online if they don’t live in Washington DC, Vermont or a remote location in Ohio.