Al Jazeera’s mobile Media unit has been quite busy lately. After making their iPhone apps free, the broadcaster has added live streaming to their mobile website. Live streaming is supported on the iPhone only for now, but Al Jazeera’s Mobile media unit is planning on adding support for other mobile platforms soon.
The mobile website streaming service works almost as well as the mobile clients and isn’t restricted by location or sitting behind a paywall. Al Jazeera has clearly taken the decision to make their programming available to as many people on as many platforms as possible.
Backing this up, last week Al Jazeera made their iPhone streaming app in English (iTunes link) free as well as launching Al Jazeera Arabic (iTunes link), also free. Both apps are powered by Livestation, the UK-based video streaming platform.
The broadcaster also removed the need for a paid subscription to access their Symbian and Windows Mobile applications which are available through Mobiclip.
While the BBC might be shrinking its website, and CNN may not be iterating as fast as before, Al Jazeera is trying to increase its global reach through the mobile market. The iPhone, with the mobile streaming site and apps, is covered well. Now lets see what they can do for the Android, BlackBerry and other platforms.