If you have an Al Jazeera app on your U.S. mobile device you can no longer watch or listen to live streams. Click on the yellow LIVE button and then on “PLAY” next to “Watch Live” or “Listen Live” and here is what happens:
Go to the Al Jazeera website, click on “watch now” and you get to a page that says this:
The Al Jazeera English live stream is no longer available in the U.S.Starting tomorrow, August 20th, you’ll be able to watch more of the in-depth reporting and great content you love on the new Al Jazeera America television channel.
Click here to see if your local television provider will be carrying Al Jazeera America. If not, let your voice be heard and please request it today.
Here’s how you can keep in touch with us and get all the latest updates about Al Jazeera America’s launch:
- Visit the website
- Subscribe to our email list
- Follow @AJAM on Twitter
- “Like” our page on Facebook
For the latest news and in-depth coverage from Al Jazeera English:
- Read our live blogs
- Download our mobile apps
- Follow @AJELive on Twitter
- Follow @AJEnglish on Twitter
Nice choices, but no substitute for live streams.
And no explanation of why. I assume it’s “due to copyright and distribution restrictions,” which are mentioned here. But a value-subtract of this magnitude deserves a full explanation. As a news organization Al Jazeera should report on exactly why it killed its streams.
Personally, I assume that the big cable companies insist that the streams be killed as a precondition for carrying the new Al Jazeera America cable channel. But, as I said back on 9 August, I don’t know.
Want to see a good model of a news organization covering news about itself? Look at what NPR is doing with news that its CEO is leaving. They (notably @davidfolkenflik) expose the whole thing, cover it as a news event, and open it up for discussion in comments.
Credit where due: Al Jazeera America’s Facebook page has comments and replies. People like me (a veteran watcher of Al Jazeera English on mobile devices who rarely watches cable) are not happy. Examples:
Ruth Arhelger No, I won’t be watching any AJ programs anymore no matter how much I wish I could because I have no way to access it. I refuse to pay more for television than I do for electricity and killing live stream is the worst idea anyone at your network has ever had. I hope at some point in the future you decide not to alienate people who can’t afford cable tv.
John Waddington where is the live stream ? what idiot turned off the live stream ?
Adey Imru Makonnen Shame that AJ English will disappear – goodbye objectivity
Jimbaux’s Journal No, because I don’t have cable and am unwilling to pay for it, partly because I just don’t like spending much time in front of the television, but I have your live feed that you posted in another comment bookmarked and will see posts that you make here on this page. Thanks for giving us options.
Al Jazeera America Jimbaux’s Journal – We encourage you to continue following us and stay tuned for updates:http://america.aljazeera.com/
Thomas Chupein No, I won’t and I am really sad. I don’t have a TV and I refuse to waste money on cable when there is almost nothing that I would watch. It was so hard to lose all the live streaming these past two days – I don’t blame AJAM but I am really sad – I can’t stomach even five minutes of U.S. news programs, and I was really looking forward to this.<
Al Jazeera America Thomas Chupein– We understand your concerns but we encourage you to join us online for Al Jazeera America news coverage to access articles and video content:www.aljazeera.com/america. Also, please continue to follow us for updates!
There are also lots of positive replies from people who like their cable news on TV and won’t miss the AJE live feed on computing devices. Those are the people Al Jazeera is after, obviously. Not cord-cutters like me and a few million others.
But it’s a retro move. And, I suspect, a costly one.
[Later…] Riyaad Minty @Riy tweets,
and to those, our most loyal
#AlJazeera viewers in the US, who have lost the live streams. We hear you. We’re working on it.
Thanks, Riyaad. Please make the new streams live and not just a collection of clips and pre-recorded programs. The latter is what the competition does, and you should do better than that.
Here’s more from Janko Roettgers on Gigaom.
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