Japanese internet tycoon Takafumi Horie said his firm, Livedoor, which offers a portal site much like Yahoo along with other internet services, has signed a deal with Qatar-based Al Jazeera to distribute its news online in Japanese. Livedoor will translate several English-language articles by Al Jazeera into Japanese each day but has no plans to provide the broadcaster’s video footage. The contract with Al Jazeera is Horie’s latest effort to bolster Livedoor’s news-providing services and attract more people to his website.
The UK’s Media Guardian reported that veteran broadcaster Sir David Frost is understood to have been signed up by Al Jazeera for its new English-language service. Sir David retired from the BBC in May after presenting a Sunday morning current affairs programme for many years.