Qatar’s Al-Jazeera America to shut down in April

Al-Jazeera America, a news channel owned by Qatar’s Al-Jazeera Media group, will be shut down on the 30th of April after only around two years of functioning as a Television Channel.

The closing down of the channel was announced at a sudden staff-wide meeting yesterday.

The news has been greeted with a heavy heart by the channel’s staff, with a senior staffer saying that, “There are executives here in tears”. Reports also claim that the shutdown would invariably lead to loss of jobs of 700 staff members.

The closing down of Al-Jazeera America has boiled down to a couple of primary reasons. Although the channel was bent on serious in-depth reporting and even won many Journalism awards, the ratings have been meagre right from the start.

In prime time the channel only averages between 20,000 and 40,000 viewers on a typical day. CNN, Fox News and other cable news channels have well over ten times as many viewers.

The channel’s doom was also due to the fall in oil prices, which dropped below $30 a barrel on Tuesday for the first time in 12 years.

A source at the company's headquarters in Doha said that Al Jazeera was planning on making cuts all over -- perhaps up to one thousand jobs -- due to the falling oil prices.

"Al Jazeera Media Network had to cut, and instead of making it across the board or anywhere else, they decided to chop Al Jazeera America," the source said.

Along with falling oil prices, another factor for Al Jazeera's bosses was the channel's status with cable distributors. Some of its carriage contracts are due to expire soon, and distributors are eager to stop carrying low-rated channels. [Source: money.cnn.com]