A sucursal norte-americana da rede de televisão Al Jazeera, com sede do emirado de Qatar, sairá do ar no começo de abril menos de três anos após o início das operações nos Estados Unidos. A explicação oficial dada para a suspensão das atividades é a falta de anunciantes norte-americanos e a queda dos preços internacionais do petróleo, o que debilitou a economia do Qatar, um país árabe exportador de combustíveis fósseis.
A Al Jazeera norte-americana pagou o preço de um mercado publicitário em recessão e uma concorrência cada vez mais acirrada entre redes de TV a cabo nos Estados Unidos. Além disso a mentalidade conservadora dos grandes anunciantes norte-americanos dificultou a captura de anúncios por causa dos vínculos da emissora com governos árabes.
Republicamos a seguir, três parágrafos (em inglês) da noticia publicado no jornal britânico The Guardian:
…The network, funded by the oil wealth of the Qatari royal family, never relied on traditional industry economics. “There’s a 15-year-old effort by Qatar to establish itself as a global influence,” pointed out Andrew Tyndall, publisher of venerable TV news industry newsletter The Tyndall. “That’s not only by spending enormous amounts of money as a sporting venue and a tourist venue and a prestige airline and an academic center; there are all kinds of ways they’ve spend their fossil fuel wealth establishing themselves as a global brand.”
But that wealth has diminished recently. Oil is now below $30 a barrel and salary rises across the tiny nation are projected to be the lowest in five years, according to a recent report.
Ultimately, infotainment may have been what the people wanted. CNN’s Jeff Zucker, taking the reins from longtime boss Jim Walton in January of the same year, went the opposite direction, adding staff like former Travel Channel chef Anthony Bourdain in a bid to compete with the Discovery Channel, among others. CNN has spent the last few years growing; al-Jazeera, despite that initial interest, has not.
Peter Szekely, president of the News Guild, under which al-Jazeera was (and the Guardian US is) unionized, said: “Al-Jazeera America’s abrupt decision to shut down will deprive Americans of one of the most reliable, high quality digital and television news outlets in the country. It is a sad day for American journalism.”