Qatar-based television network Al Jazeera is to launch a news channel aimed at the 110 million Urdu speaking population around the world.
The move comes as the channel prepares to start broadcasting Al Jazeera International, an English language news station that will have broadcast centres in Washington, London, Kuala Lumpur and Doha.
Al Jazeera Urdu is being launched as part of a joint venture with the ARY Digital Network, which claims to be the largest Urdu television network in the world, with 11 channels of entertainment broadcasting across the sub-continent, Europe, North America and the Middle East.
The news channel will provide Urdu-speaking viewers with hourly news bulletins, breaking news, exclusive programmes and interviews in addition to dubbed content.
Al Jazeera’s marketing director, Hamad Yehya Al Nuaimi, said: “Initially we are targeting the Urdu-speaking population in Pakistan, then the dubbed service will spread to the Indian sub-continent as well as Urdu speakers in the United States and Europe.”
Salman Iqbal, ARY Digital Network’s president and CEO said that the station would break the language barrier to an already existing viewer-base “yearning” to understand the channel’s content.
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