Time Warner Cable agrees to carry Al Jazeera America

Roger Yu | USA TODAY

Time Warner Cable said Friday that it has added Al Jazeera America to its channel lineup, broadening distribution for the fledgling news network that has had trouble gaining viewers.

The expansion gives Al Jazeera America, or AJAM as it's often called, access to about 55 million homes, it said.

Financial terms weren't disclosed.

Al Jazeera Media Network, funded by the government of Qatar, bought the struggling Current TV network earlier this year for about $500 million, gutted its programming and replaced it by launching AJAM in August. AJAM, its executives said, would compete with CNN and Fox News by focusing on "unbiased" news about the U.S.

But the change in ownership prompted cable companies, including Time Warner Cable and AT&T U-Verse, to drop the network, instantly weakening the audience reach that Al Jazeera had banked on at the time of its purchase of Current TV.

TWC said the network's weak ratings and an escape provision in their contract in the event of ownership change primarily drove its decision. AT&T dropped the channel hours before it began airing on Aug. 20, cutting off access to about 5 million U-Verse customers. Al Jazeera is suing AT&T over the sudden ending of their contract.

The contractual squabbles were accompanied by a political layer that made the channel carriage decisions more complex. Conservative pundits claimed that the network would serve as the mouthpiece for the Qatari government and heavily opposed its launch in the U.S. The network's predecessor, Al Jazeera English, aired numerous Osama bin Laden videos in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and stories that were critical of the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq War.

AJAM's fans say the heavy investment from the network's parent and its in-depth approach to story coverage provide much needed competition in the U.S. cable news market.