The BBC World Service has announced it is to set up a new Arabic television channel, in what it describes as its “biggest transformation in 70 years.”
The new station is expected to be a rival to the Qatar-based al-Jazeera, which is itself launching an English-language service next year.
The World Service says its new Arabic language television service is “part of a wide-ranging package of proposals aimed at maintaining and enhancing BBC World Service’s pre-eminent position and impact in an emerging multimedia age.”
The Arabic channel, due to launch in 2007, forms part of a