VDC.com to Launch Al Jazeera English Channel

VDC.com to Launch Al Jazeera English Channel

NORTHBROOK, Ill., Nov. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- VDC.com and Al Jazeera English, a new channel from the award winning independent Arabic news service, today announced a distribution agreement to deliver Al Jazeera English, the company's new international English language 24-hour news channel as part of the VDC.com channel lineup. VDC.com will be the first U.S.-based broadband cable television provider to distribute Al Jazeera English in the United States. Al Jazeera English will immediately be available to over 60 million broadband users in the U.S.

Under the agreement, VDC.com subscribers will have access to Al Jazeera English's live programming, covering breaking news around the globe, as well as political, business and entertainment news. Al Jazeera English will originate in Washington, D.C., and four other anchor cities. The channel has hired well-known journalists from the BBC, CNN and ABC News.

"Al Jazeera will be a very popular cable news source, and its programming is a valuable addition to our robust VDC channel lineup," said Michael Wolf, CEO of VDC Corporation. "Al Jazeera English will present world news with perspective and commentary on the news coming from an international cadre of world famous, and highly respected journalists with different cultural views of the day's events."

"There's an appetite for international news that doesn't come from a specific national perspective," said Will Stebbins, Al Jazeera's Washington bureau chief. "We're not going to have any accent."

Al Jazeera English will be available tomorrow to VDC.com subscribers at VDC.com.

VDC.com or Virtual Digital Cable, is a linear television subscription service delivered via the Internet to personal computers.

Al Jazeera joins the growing VDC line-up of live television channels including AccuWeather, Fashion Television, NASA, The Pentagon Channel, Shop NBC, QVC, The Associated Press, Democracy Now, The Soundtrack Channel and dozens of other linear cable television channels.

About Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera satellite channel (JSC) is the first independent Arabic news and information satellite channel, dedicated to freedom of speech. It broadcasts news updates every 60 minutes, with four main news bulletins a day. JSC offers the highest standards of independent journalism; unmatched coverage throughout the world.

JSC has rapidly become a leading Arab satellite channel and has generated a great deal of word of mouth publicity. Since its launch it has gained a very extensive audience throughout the Middle East and western world.

About VDC.com

Northbrook, Illinois-based VDC Corporation launched VDC.com on April 10, 2006 at the National Cable Television Association National Show in Atlanta. Debuting with 10 channels, VDC (Virtual Digital Cable) has been adding new channels every month. VDC utilizes Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) technology and offers multiple cable channels live to consumers via the embedded Microsoft Media Player, without the need for additional boxes or software. VDC is available in the 60 million U.S. households that have access to a high speed Broadband Internet connection plus millions of additional business and office locations. VDC has developed proprietary technology that allows it to capture, encode and stream multi-bit-rate video in a live format, at rates up to 3Mbits without the need for consumers to download special software or configure anything.

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Source: VDC.com

CONTACT: Scott Wolf, +1-800-478-2303 ext 710, or scottwolf@vdc.com , or
Melissa Skolnick, +1-800-478-2303 ext 713, lissy@vdc.com , both of VDC
Corporation

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