Al Jazeera Network has launched the updated version of its live broadcast channel, Al Jazeera Mubasher, with a refreshed look and content aimed at boosting the channel’s real-time interactivity with its viewers.

Al Jazeera said the channel has implemented these changes with the goal of complementing the network’s versatile news service with a constant link with its viewers. It will also increase the number of live broadcasts.

The new version has been developed in response to major changes over the past years in how viewers consume and share information and news content.

Ayman Gaballah, Al Jazeera Mubasher’s managing director said, “Over the past six years since Mubasher was launched we have witnessed the rapid rise of social networks like Facebook and live-blogging sites like Twitter."

"These have become part of how viewers get their news content and how they make sense of it. The new features in Al Jazeera are being introduced to respond to those changes in our news environment," he explained.

Key among the new features is to provide more opportunities for viewers to comment, in real-time, on what is being aired on-screen. Viewers can do so via text messages (SMS), social networks, micro-blogging sites, among others.

Another feature is a real-time feed of updated information, including stock and oil prices,  that goes alongside regular broadcasts. Mubasher has also expanded live broadcasts in its new schedule of major events and news-related activities from around the world.

Another fresh addition to Mubasher is news-oriented “reality television” broadcasts which will feature the daily lives of individuals and communities at the center of news with the goal of shining more light on the interests, dreams, as well as struggles, of those individuals and communities.

To augment reach and interactivity of revamped Mubasher, the channel will be broadcast round-the-clock and will have its website, mubasher.aljazeera.net, starting in mid January.-TradeArabia News Service