Time Warner drops Current after sale

Qatar-based Al-Jazeera is buying cable news channel to expand U.S. reach

— Time Warner Cable Inc. dropped Current TV after Al-Jazeera announced Wednesday that it was buying the news channel, a sign that Al-Jazeera will have an uphill climb to expand its reach.

“Our agreement with Current has been terminated and we will no longer be carrying the service. We are removing the service as quickly as possible,” Time Warner said in a statement.

The acquisition of Current, the news network co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore, boosts Al-Jazeera’s reach in the U.S. beyond a few large U.S. metropolitan areas — including New York and Washington — nearly ninefold to about 40 million homes.

Gore confirmed the sale Wednesday, saying in a statement that Al-Jazeera shares Current TV's mission “to give voice to those who are not typically heard; to speak truth to power; to provide independent and diverse points of view; and to tell the stories that no one else is telling.”

Al-Jazeera, owned by the government of Qatar, plans to gradually transform Current into a network called Al-Jazeera America by adding five to 10 U.S. bureaus beyond the five it has now and hiring more journalists. More than half of the content will be U.S. news, and the network will have its headquarters in New York, spokesman Stan Collender said.

Collender said there are no rules against foreign ownership of a cable channel — unlike the strict rules limiting foreign ownership of free-to-air TV stations. He said the move is based on demand, adding that 40 percent of viewing traffic on Al-Jazeera English's website is from the U.S.

“This is a pure business decision based on recognized demand,” Collender said. “When people watch Al-Jazeera, they tend to like it a great deal.”

Before Al-Jazeera’s purchase, Current TV was in 60 million homes. It is carried by Comcast Corp., which owned less than a 10 percent stake in Current TV, as well as DirecTV. Neither company announced plans to drop the channel.

Current TV began as a effort to promote user-generated content, but it has settled into a more-conventional format of political talk television. Gore worked on-air as an analyst during its recent election-night coverage.

Current TV is expected to post $114 million in revenue in 2013, according to research firm SNL Kagan. The firm pegged the network’s cash flow at nearly $24 million a year.

Information for this article was contributed by David Bauder and Adam Schreck of The Associated Press.

Business, Pages 24 on 01/04/2013

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