The U.S. news channel will focus on international news and current affairs based in New York, with bureaus in Washington D.C. Patrick Drahi, the founder and controlling shareholder of Altice N.V., started up i24 News in 2013.
The network’s global headquarters is in Tel Aviv -- now with major studio operations in the U.S., Israel and Europe. Three separate studios will broadcast news programming in a different languages – English, French and Arabic.
The new U.S. network will launch on Monday, February 13, with Altice USA as its first distribution partner. The global channel currently has more than 250 journalists; with 50 U.S. journalists.
Just about a year ago, the nearly three-year-old international news-minded U.S. cable network Al Jazeera announced it was closing down.
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The company, which started with nearly 50 million in U.S. subscribers at the time, said: “Our business model is simply not sustainable in light of the economic challenges in the U.S. media marketplace.”
In June 2016, Altice completed its $17.7 billion acquisition of Cablevision Systems Corp. Altice, along with its Suddenlink acquisition, has 4.6 million U.S. subscribers.
In the New York tri-state area, Altice USA operates News 12 Networks, the country's largest, regional news network.