Al Jazeera America announced today the channel “will cease operation by April 30.”
Will viewers miss it? Well, the vast majority of American television viewers missed it entirely. Think of how few viewers Al Gore’s Current TV had. Now cut that in half, and you have the prime-time audience for Al Jazeera America in its first six months – about 15,000 prime-time viewers. They finally “boosted” it to 20,000 to 30,000 viewers per night.
In November, new chief Al Antsley declared Al Jazeera America was “a young channel is a very mature market,” but “we are in this for the long haul.” Not such a long haul after all.
Gee, maybe Al Gore would have been better off selling Current TV to Glenn Beck. Wait, never mind; Gore didn’t care what happened to his channel; he was just in it for the money — $500 million – from a country built on petrochemical wealth. (You know why they called it “Current”? Because it had no future.)
Good luck, Ali Velshi.