London: The British Broadcasting Corporation will launche its new Arabic-language cable and satellite television channel tomorrow, in its second attempt to enter the Middle East market.

BBC Arabic Television is the corporation's first publicly funded international television service and comes 11 years after a foray into the Middle East market ended in failure over editorial disagreements with the channel's Saudi backers.

The new channel faces intense competition from the region's top channel, Qatar-based Al-Jazeera, and Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya, which recently celebrated its fifth birthday.

It will initially be on air for 12 hours per day before switching to a 24-hour operation later this year. The venture - initially costing $37.7 million, rising to 25 million pounds when it becomes round-the-clock - aims to provide the Middle East's only "tri-media" (TV, radio and online) service by building on the BBC's existing Arabic radio and Internet services.

To pay for the channel, the BBC axed more than 200 jobs in 10 mainly eastern European language services under a radical overhaul of World Service radio.

The new television channel "will reflect the breadth of the Arab audience's interests," BBC Arabic head Hosam El Sokkari said, announcing the launch this month.

He claimed it would better serve Arab audiences than Al-Jazeera. "It can be their ears and eyes - not just in the countries where people live, but throughout the region and around the rest of the world," he said.

Source : PTI