Television in

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...

is very much state-influenced and operated. Official Qatar TV began producing and transmitting its own programmes in 1970, with colour transmission since 1974. It had a monopoly on television audience until 1993, when Qatar Cablevision began broadcasting satellite channels. Since then, four other platforms went on air: ART/1st NET,

Orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as ...

, Star Select and Gulf DTH/

Showtime Showtime or Show Time may refer to: Film * ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film * ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur Television Networks and channels * Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...

. Despite the broadening of television offerings, Qatar TV remains popular among Qataris. As of 2009, the state owns and operates all broadcast media, and there are only two television networks in the country: Qatar TV and

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...

. Qatar TV broadcasts mostly official news from a pro-government perspective, while Al Jazeera focuses its coverage on international and regional topics. Penetration of pay-TV is significantly high at close to 83% in 2011. There are 15 free-to-air channels headquartered in Qatar, of which 13 are state-owned. The state-run Qatar General Broadcasting and Television Corporation operates two domestic channels and the Qatar Satellite channel. Most prominent channels include those related to the

Al Jazeera Media Network Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN) (Arabic: الجزيرة‎, romanized: al-jazīrah, IPA: �l (d)ʒæˈziːrɐ , referring to the Qatar Peninsula) is a Qatari international state-owned public media conglomerate headquartered at Qatar Radio and T ...

References

{{Television in Asia

Television stations A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the ear ...