New Yorkers Will Now Be Able to Watch Al Jazeera on TV

It will be "subletting" a spot on the cable channel RISE

Al Jazeera English is arriving in New York today, albeit by "subletting" a slot space on the cable channel RISE for 23 hours-a-day coverage, The New York Times reports. The move is an incremental step in the Qatari-government financed channel's effort to get on more U.S. televisions after reaping deserved praise for their coverage of the Middle East protests earlier this year. "We will get on in the U.S.," Al Anstey, the channel’s managing director, told the Times' Brian Stelter. To capitalize on their Arab Spring success, Al Jazeera English had previously launched social media meet ups, bought full-page ads in newspapers, and met with U.S. cable providers. But getting carried more widely is a difficult proposition: "Al Jazeera is not the only international news channel seeking space; the BBC is trying to persuade the companies to carry BBC World News, too, so far with little luck," notes Stelter.