Al Arabiya
Saudi Arabian television news channel launched in 2003
Al Arabiya (Arabic: العربية, romanized: al-ʿArabiyyah; stylized as al arabiya العربية) is a Saudi Arabian state-owned international Arabic-language television news channel. It is based in Riyadh and operates as a subsidiary of the MBC Group, a major media conglomerate in the Middle East and North Africa.
History
Al Arabiya was originally launched in Dubai Media City, United Arab Emirates, on 3 March 2003. An early funder, the production company Middle East News (then headed by Ali al-Hedeithy), said the goal was to provide "a balanced and less provocative" alternative to Al Jazeera.
A free-to-air channel, Al Arabiya broadcasts standard newscasts every hour, as well as talk shows and documentaries. It has been rated among the top pan-Arab stations by Middle East audiences. The news organization's website is accessible in Arabic, English, Urdu, and Persian.
On 26 January 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama gave his first formal interview as president to Al Arabiya, delivering the message to the Islamic world that "Americans are not your enemy," while also reiterating that "Israel is a strong ally of the United States" and that they "will not stop being a strong ally of the United States".
In March 2012, the channel launched a new channel, Al Hadath, which focused on political news.
Mamdouh al-Muhaini became general manager of the Al Arabiya Network in October 2019, succeeding former manager Nabil al-Khatib.
“Al Arabiya” enters the record as saudi Arabian television news channel launched in 2003. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Arabiya, Saudi and Arabian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Al Arabiya” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Arabiya, Saudi and Arabian provides the most credible route into that argument.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q310172. VIAF identifies the subject as 311443407. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2003, 2009, 2012 and 2019.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Al Arabiya” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.