While Al Jazeera English remains without carriage on major U.S. cable and satellite TV systems, Roku now offers free access to the Qatar-based news channel's live feed through its broadband-connected set-tops
Al Jazeera -- which has gained newfound attention with the widespread
political unrest in Egypt -- also provides free access to the live
English-language TV channel over the Internet, at http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now.
Roku provides access to Al Jazeera English through its
Roku Newscaster channel, which also offers video and audio clips from
CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, BBC, NPR, NASA and C-SPAN, among other sources. Multichannel News
was able to access the Arabic network's live feed on a Roku box
Wednesday over a standard broadband connection, although in sub-HD
quality.
Among top U.S. pay-TV operators, only Dish Network offers the Al Jazeera news channel, but only the Arabic-language version, as part of some of its international premium packages.
