Al Jazeera Network announces the launch of its English language global news service on the Austar Pay TV platform in Australia which will begin on the 15th of November, 2009, expanding Al Jazeera English’s distribution reach to over 180 million households globally.

Al Jazeera English is joining 40+ other channels available in the Austar Starter Package which has a subscriber base currently of 739,000 throughout regional Australia. It can be watched on channel 651.

Phil Lawrie, Director of Global Distribution, Al Jazeera said “We are delighted to be celebrating today’s launch of Al Jazeera English on Austar and to be able to provide AJE to a sizeable new audience in this important market. Furthermore, we’re excited at the fact that this launch helps carry AJE to a global distribution reach of over 180 million households – a particularly notable statistic in that we have now added 100 million homes to AJE’s distribution in the three years since the channel’s launch”.

John Porter, CEO of Austar said “With the addition of Al Jazeera English to our Starter Package, now Regional Australians will be able to enjoy a wide and diverse range of international news viewpoints and discourse”.