EuroNews to broadcast in Arabic in 2008

EuroNews has won the European Union’s call for tenders to extend its offering to include in Arabic. This new addition will be the eighth language version broadcast by EuroNews which already broadcasts in seven languages simultaneously (English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish).

Arabic will become EuroNews’ eighth fully-fledged language, and the service will be launched by the channel’s newsroom in 2008.

In the coming months, EuroNews will recruit a team of 35 people who will work at EuroNews’ head office in Lyon, France. In parallel, the channel will adapt its technical facilities (production, broadcasting and distribution) to host this new language version. The Arabic service will be broadcast across EuroNews’ entire network of 35 satellites, thus making the Arabic-service signal available worldwide. From the start of 2008, the channel’s sales teams will invite all cable, satellite, ADSL/broadband and mobile-phone operators worldwide to add the Arabic version of EuroNews to their offerings.

In launching an Arabic version, EuroNews will meet two objectives: to cater for Arabic-speaking Europeans, and to extend distribution of the channel to Arabic-speaking countries.

Philippe Cayla, Chairman & CEO of EuroNews, commented: “In Europe, the fact that EuroNews is available in Arabic will definitely help Arabic-speaking populations to better understand the framework of European policies and the issues at stake. In the Mediterranean basin, and in the Arabic-speaking world in general, where EuroNews already has a substantial audience for its English and French versions, the channel will be able to grow its audience significantly.

EuroNews is available in 200 mln homes in 130 countries. Viewers can also watch EuroNews on their PDA and live on the internet with RealNetworks Superpass in Europe and worldwide with Jalipo (United Kingdom).