Al Jazeera, the 24-hour news and current affairs channel owned by Qatar Government is seeking to take the private route if its footwork into football coverages turns into a financial gain, according to media report that appeared in London yesterday.
Headquartered in Doha, Al Jazeera TV broadcasts internationally in English and Arabic languages. The channel has recently launched three sports channels to generate additional income as it is expected to cease depending on government funding, said the report in the London-based The Times.
In an informal confirmation of the move, the network's Director-General Wadah Khanfar said a sell-off was a medium-term option once the state-subsidised Al Jazeera had become profitable.
"Internally, the talk of the channel going private is picking up and has been going stronger ever since the newly-launched sport channels have started churning revenue with very healthy advertising," said one of the network staff members, on the condition of anonymity.
"Nothing concrete has been conveyed in any form internally or externally, but auditors seem to be evaluating the network's worth," confirmed the source.
However, Khanfar left the onus on the management as he was quoted in the newspaper report as saying: "It will be up to the board to decide, but it is a realistic possibility in the long term.
"We have to be able to maintain the independence of our editorial line and we have to no longer depend on subsidy. We have a plan – that will take a few years – so that we become self-financing," he added.
Al Jazeera is the world's first global English/Arabic language news channel to be headquartered in the Middle East. From this unique position, Al Jazeera English is considered to be the English-language channel of reference for Middle Eastern events.