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Al Jazeera America's studio in New York, an essential market that the cable channel will have greater access to through its agreement with Time Warner Cable.
Time Warner Cable, one of the country's biggest cable operators, has agreed to carry Al Jazeera America, giving the Qatar-owned broadcaster exposure to millions more households as it seeks to build an audience in the United States.
The contract, to be announced on Thursday, is vital for Al Jazeera because Time Warner Cable supplies television to millions of households in New York and Los Angeles, two essential markets. Al Jazeera America will be added to the channel lineups in those markets this year, and in Time Warner Cable's other markets by March.
The distribution deal is the first Al Jazeera America has made since its debut two months ago, replacing Current TV. Ehab Al Shihabi, Al Jazeera America's interim chief executive, estimated that once the deal was fully in effect, the channel would be available in about 54 million of the 100 million American homes that subscribe to satellite and cable television, up from about 44 million homes now.
Mr. Al Shihabi said Al Jazeera, which features American and international news, was in "active negotiations" with other cable and satellite distributors. He said Time Warner Cable's decision was evidence that "we are providing fact-based, in-depth, independent news."
Al Jazeera America, like other channel owners, has sought an unspecified per-subscriber fee to be carried. But distributors are generally reluctant to add to their crowded lineups, so channels have occasionally paid to be carried. In this case, Al Jazeera may pay Time Warner Cable for marketing and advertising sales support.
Mr. Al Shihabi declined to say whether Al Jazeera had paid, but called the distribution deal a "win-win proposition."
The agreement resolves a dispute that occurred 10 months ago when Al Jazeera announced its intent to take over Current. The change in ownership gave Time Warner Cable a chance to drop the low-rated Current, and the cable company took it, dealing Al Jazeera an early setback as it entered the American marketplace.
"We said in January that we would consider Al Jazeera America," Melinda Witmer, the chief video and content officer for Time Warner Cable, said in a statement. "Now that the channel is live, we think that it would be of value to our customers and are pleased to make it available."
Al Jazeera America's initial ratings have been almost immeasurably low, with fewer than 25,000 viewers at any time. But Mr. Al Shihabi noted that Fox News Channel and MSNBC started with similarly low ratings in the mid-1990s and said that he cared more about the quality of the programming. "Ratings are critical," he said. "But what's more critical for us is our impact on Main Street."
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