Al-Jazeera America: Worst Deal Ever

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If this blog post gets linked by @Instapundit, it might be seen by more people than will watch Al-Jazeera America today:

In the deal of the century, Al Jazeera paid $500 Million dollars for a liberal cable channel no one watched and then lost half its viewers. How much did that half a billion bucks, plus whatever Qatar paid Time Warner to carry it, buy?
13,000 viewers a day. . . .
The ratings are so low, they are considered a “scratch” and aren’t reported by Nielsen. . . .
By comparison, 31,000 viewers tuned into Current TV a year ago.

Nobody has offered $500 million for my blog. Yet.

 

52 comments

  3. I will offer you $500 million for your blog. Of course, I don’t have $500 million in my account, but hey, if Ben Bernanke can operate that way, I don’t see why I can’t.

  4. I will offer you $500 million for your blog. Of course, I don’t have $500 million in my account, but hey, if Ben Bernanke can operate that way, I don’t see why I can’t.

  5. Of course, it’s really all George Bush’s fault. It’s his doing that an Arab owned cable company can’t get on my cable company’s lineup, so I’m prevented from watching the station in the first place.

  6. However, I have to dispute your claim that this was the worst business deal ever. For former Vice President Al Gore, this was like the best deal ever!

  11. You might already have more viewers than al Jazeera does.

    On the other hand, both of you have more than have signed up for Obamacare! (rimshot).

  12. I think I have 25 Moroccan Dirham or 75 Russian Rubles floating around somewhere. I’ll buy you out, straight cash if you can make change in anything other than French Francs.

    It is the same deal I offered Algore for his TV station…

  13. These guys aren’t dumb. They didn’t pay $500mm for this joke of a network in of itself. They must be expecting something else for their money.

  15. I actually don’t think they care, I think being able claim US TV coverage etc is of value to them

  16. Dear Mr McCain,

    I am a Nigerian prince, and would be delighted to offer you $500 million for your web site. Please send me your full name, social security number, bank account number and PIN, and any other relevant information.

    Thank you.

  19. Algoreis destine to go down in history as the biggest con man ever. He has out done Barnum & Bailey, Bernie Madeoff, and is approaching overtaking obama.

  20. Al Jazerra would do better to stream videos of women in lingerie.

    Which would be an application of Rule 5, and you wouldn’t get a cut of their take for having thought up Rule 5 in the first place.

    Never mind!

  24. And yet there are hundreds of small broadcast TV stations, owned and operated by Americans, that cannot get carried on cable. Just google LPTV and Class A TV

  30. If you’re a Charter customer then no, it’s my fault. I told Charter they’d find more viewers for a channel that played nothing but Kenny G videos.

  31. It’s all relative.

    For $500 million, Al-Jazeera got a cable/satellite channel with existing contracts for transmission, some equipment and office leases, and some free publicity.

    For $500 million, Barack Obama couldn’t even buy a working website, and $4.4 billion he granted to states didn’t fare so much better.

    So who’s the Smart Shopper now?

  32. Well, it would have been all right if it were cash. But I am pretty sure it was all in AOL stock to be issued as a series of warrants (meaning it wasn’t available for her to sell on the market all at once). So it really depends on how quickly she dumped it – in this case, with the FRB pump flowing, she would have done well to hold it all.

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