The long awaited launch of the BBC's Arabic television station is nearly over as the corporation sets 11th March 2008 as its launch date.

Initially the station will broadcast a combination of news and current affairs programming for 12 hours daily and moving upto 24 hours later on the year:

"The British Broadcasting Corporation's new Arabic-language cable and satellite television channel will launch next week, bosses said Monday, laying down the gauntlet to existing pan-Arab stations.

BBC Arabic Television will go live at 1000 GMT on Tuesday March 11, initially broadcasting for 12 hours a day before becoming a 24-hour operation later this year.

It is the BBC's first publicly-funded international television service and comes 11 years after a previous foray into the Middle East television market ended in failure after editorial disagreements with its Saudi backers.

The venture -- initially costing 19 million pounds (24.8 million euros, 37.7 million dollars) and 25 million pounds when it becomes round-the-clock -- aims to provide the Middle East's only "tri-media" (TV, radio and online) service...

...BBC Arabic Television, which aims to build on the existing BBC Arabic radio and Internet services, will be free-to-air for anyone with a satellite or cable connection in north Africa, the Middle East and the Gulf.

The director of BBC World Service, Nigel Chapman, said they were boosting coverage in the Middle East because satellite news channels had changed the media landscape there over the last decade.

"There is no doubt that television is now the dominant medium for consuming news in the region," he added.

"Without a BBC news presence in Arabic on television, we run the risk of always being second to other television sources, despite the quality of our radio and new media offers."

Chapman told reporters they hoped to attract 20 million viewers per week by 2010 and 35 million users per week for all three services." (Source: AFP)

How many in the Middle East will just see this as another attempt by a western government backed organisation to disseminate propaganda in the region ?

The Arabic speaking world has already seen the debacle that became the American back Al-Hurra. television station. Lets hope the British and the BBC do not make the same mistakes as the Americans.