Sky News Arabia, a 24-hour Arabic language news channel set for launch on May 6, has signed distribution deals with a number of television platforms.

They include OSN and the Abu Dhabi TV Network in High Definition and the Etisalat eLife TV and du IPTV platforms in Standard Definition.

Sky News Arabia has also concluded agreements with Eurostar, a leading provider of multimedia services, to make the channel available in hotels across the Mena region as well as with Livestation for worldwide live internet streaming, a statement said.

The news network will also broadcast free-to-air on Arabsat and Nilesat across the Arab world, and, subject to regulatory approvals, be carried on the BSkyB platform in the UK and free-to-air on Astra for viewers in the UK and Europe respectively. 

In a first for the region, the network will also be available across all multimedia platforms from launch with apps available for iPads and smartphones as well as a rich content website at www.skynewsarabia.com.

Nart Bouran, head of Sky News Arabia, said:  “The key objective of any news organization is to provide accurate, independent breaking news 24 hours a day to widest possible audience.  With these distribution deals Sky News Arabia can deliver on that promise, online, on mobile and tablet devices and with the widest reach on television.

“Our fresh, fast paced, continuous rolling news coverage and our completely integrated multimedia offering means our viewers get the breaking news first, whenever they want, in the format they want it.” 

Sky News Arabia will be broadcast free-to-air on Nilesat 201, Transponder 14 and on ArabsatBadr 4, Transponder 15. In addition the channel will be available on OSN channel 122 in HD and 123 in SD, Etisalat eLife channel 234 and du channel 16. – TradeArabia News Service