Al Jazeera Balkans

The "real" launch of Al Jazeera Balkans is still months away; in fact, the channel's Sarajevo studios are still under construction. However, in order to fulfill requirements of the Bosnian TV regulatory body, AJB has started airing some limited programming on its Bosnian terrestrial frequencies -- apparently consinsting mostly of a promo loop and some AJE simulcasts.

Here is the promo:



The new channel, based in Sarajevo, will broadcast in the language formerly known as "Serbo-Croatian" (i.e. Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian) primarily for viewers in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, but will have bureaus in other countries as well.

The launch is scheduled for this fall.

What a weird map of southern Europe at 53 seconds, with slightly odd placement of Germany and Belgium.

Branding for this channel will be interesting to see. Firstly, AlJazeera's network of channels usually have independent branding, for instance AlJazeera Arabic has completely different branding to AlJazeera English. On the AlJazeera Balkans website, the Arabic branding is seen, whilst the promo has the English channels branding.
Meanwhile, there was supposed to be a new look for the English network a few months ago, which still hasn't launched (some people are saying November now)

The promo is quite obviously just cobbled together with elements from AJE's current branding package, presumably in the absence of it's own graphics.

Incidently AJ have bought a Turkish TV station too and will turn that into an AJ Turkish channel

Well, that's the map of Balkan region.

BTW, I noticed a constant loop of AJE business music with intro and outro.

I don't know about the branding and the presentation, but Al Jazeera Balkans' news director says that the overall concept of the channel will be based on Al Jazeera English.

Some new pics of AJB's headquarters under construction:

http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-cjd41seT19M/TkMkQSVXSSI/AAAAAAAAALQ/ToqxK6D6_Eo/StudioM.jpg

http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-g_xc9a9HYEY/TkMkS2Eny1I/AAAAAAAAALc/icCyqTp8mvA/NewsroomM.jpg

http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-X0nSppR6XCo/TkMkPujg-JI/AAAAAAAAALM/8qaDYd_NLHg/UlazM.jpg

http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-9W3Gc-RQCyc/TkMkTxYloJI/AAAAAAAAALk/Zz2wsDknYWA/IntroM.jpg

And this is how the newsroom will look when completed:

http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-y-w0BjIC7rE/TkMpzyKZr4I/AAAAAAAAAMA/8uwMZyG-xSA/Final2M.jpg

http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-fyDDq2m9gsI/TkMpzLr4DWI/AAAAAAAAAL8/YKc3FKSgTPA/Final1M.jpg

Source: TeVe.ba (Google PicasaWeb)

Some more tidbits about AJB from this article:

* AJB will have bureaus in:

Zagreb, Croatia (major bureau)
Belgrade, Serbia (major bureau)
Skopje, Macedonia (major bureau)
Podgorica, Montenegro
Pri�tina, Kosovo
Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Banja Luka, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Washington
London
Brussels
Berlin
Vienna
Moscow
Istanbul
Jerusalem
Beijing

* In addition to these bureaus, AJB will make use of 65 bureaus run by other Al Jazeera channels.

* The channel plans to employ some 170 people.

* Local journalists and technical staff are being trained in London and in Doha.

* AJE's London staff is handling AJB's distribution.

* The channel will broadcast some six hour of new programming a day; the rest will consist of AJE simulcasts, repeats, and documentaries.

* The entire production process is going to be in HD.

Adrian Finighan has just arrived in Sarajevo to help with the set-up of AJB. I don't imagine he's there to do carpentry work, but more of the journalistic work!

Below are some shots of the just completed newsroom. As is often the case, it looks considerably less impressive than it did in the computer renderings (but then again, maybe the lighting will make all the difference):

http://static.sarajevo-x.com/media/images/vijesti/110912138.2_mn.jpg

http://static.sarajevo-x.com/media/images/vijesti/110912138.1_mn.jpg

Here's a brand-new promo for Al Jazeera Balkans, this time with English subtitles:

According to Bosnian media sources, AJB will launch this coming Friday, November 11.