Arise News

Arise News is currently testing ahead of full launch, anyone know what they have planned or inside info as to when this channel fully launches? They've currently got an Sky SD EPG placeholder slot showing a mixture of news and other programming, I caught some pre-recorded news output over the weekend which looks a bit flaky but presumably will be ironed out.

They are also doing a fair bit of recruitment on their site and are planning a UK HD launch of their news service too: www.arise.tv/careers

This looks really interesting - it has four 'broadcast hubs.' - London, New York, Johannesburg and Lagos. I wonder how much air time will come from each. My first big question is the funding for the channel. It seems it will take a largely African perspective and claims it is not state funded. Is there a big businessman behind it? International news channels are difficult to make profit with, especially for the first few years. Someone has to be putting up the money to sustain the project long term. If I am right with that, the big question is why? What is their personal agenda?

Just seen that they are launching Arise America as well which I guess will be an opt out of the main service.

Just read that Michael Wilson is Director of Business News, also that Heather Scott is a business correspondent.

Well, to start, the male presenter is just plain annoying. His style of presentation is enough not to tune in to this amateurish, waste of time news channel.

Very poor camerawork and awkward layout to the London studio.

In answer to your question, George, here's something from their About page re funding.

The male presenter is REALLY bad, our first years are better than that. That shot from behind the presenters is quite bad, does anyone know what studio this is? The idea seems good, but from the UK side, doesn't seem to be executed that well.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/07/10/business/10nigeria.600.jpg



Nduka Obaigbena is the owner of a Nigerian newspaper, ThisDay. It's a successful, populist newspaper in Nigeria, and is part of the reason why he has the money to fund a news channel (he also owns other businesses, it seems).

That is a very cool desk.



DanielK, the last time I checked you were not a teacher.

I don't think Jeff Koinange is bad - CNN liked him enough to be Africa correspondent for them for 6 years; not only that, but he's an Emmy award winner. His accent gives him gravitas, and he knows what he's talking about.

Not a teacher, but a senior mentor! To me his style is very wooden, other people can interpret his style differently .

Going by the shot of Parliament behind the presenters it looks like it's at Westminster Live Studios. They're on a corner so have a good view down the river and have put studios on several floors. Westminster Live is used by Al Jazeera Arabic, they use a studio with that view for their London based programmes

I was under the impression you were at school as a pupil. Oh well.

oh right. I didn't see the i, thought it was a bit of a strange name.