To continue on Tom’s post from yesterday, this AP article on the failure of Al-Jazeera to launch in the U.S. caught my eye. It seems the market niche for they type of programming that Al-Jazeera would offer to a US audience has already been filled:

Al-Jazeera faces questions about its marketability in America, however. At one major cable carrier, an executive said Al-Jazeera’s English programming was too similar to BBC World and there weren’t enough likely American viewers to add another foreign-centric news channel. The executive spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss corporate strategy.