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ATV sold after impasse with government |
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 ATV was promoted as Jordan’s first independent terrestrial and satellite free-to-air television station. It is reported to have cost more than $28 million (JD 20 million) to set up, but it has yet to make it on the air.
After several weeks of stalemate with the government over transmission rights, founder and owner Mohammad Alayyan sold ATV for $21 million in late September. The government’s Audio-Visual Commission (AVC) has now approved ATV for broadcasting under its new owners.
But Mohammad Khaled Asfour and Mohammad Abdul Aati, of Al Ajayeb for Investments, say they will have to notify the AVC when they are ready to broadcast. “I don’t think they will broadcast anytime in the near future,” the Commission’s Director Hussein Bani-Hani told the MEB Journal. “Their financial situation is dire.”
Al Ajayeb has incurred at least $4 million in debts from the purchase.
At the time of sale, ATV owed Jordan’s Media City $72 thousand for a lease agreement on NileSat.
It also owed state broadcaster Jordan TV $2.85 million for territorial lease rights on its Channel 2. ATV signed a lease agreement with Jordan TV, but never used the space on its channel. “It’s like paying rent, electricity, and water bills for a house you don’t live in,” Muhannad Al Khatib, the channel’s former director, told MEB Journal. Six unaired Ramadan series also cost ATV over $2.5 million.
ATV was originally set to start broadcasting on August 1 with what it called “a fresh approach” to covering local news. The Commission stopped its signal 24 hours before launch time, citing incomplete licensing agreements and payments.
ATV’s founder could not be reached for comment after the sale, but Al Khatib – who resigned the following day – has been outspoken in the press against what he calls direct interference by “official parties.” He told Al Jazeera: “What happened to ATV was not a normal sales transaction, but a forced sale – not to say nationalization or takeover.”
The Commission’s Bani-Hani says “any attempt to politicize the issue is false.” ATV entered transmission trials, he says, without completing license payments to the government or informing the Audio-Visual Commission. “You cannot get on the air when you are in debt,” said Bani-Hani, adding that the Commission has “no other objection” to ATV.
In a letter sent to colleagues upon resignation, Al Khatib called the Commission’s demands “lame” and claimed “they do not constitute a real reason to halt our station the way they did.” He maintained that the results reflect “short-sightedness and ignorance of the importance of media and its sensitive role.”
In response to continuing accusations of government censorship, the Commission’s Bani-Hani told MEB Journal: “We have 14 licensed Arabic and Jordanian satellite channels on the air, broadcasting from Amman. Why would ATV be the only channel we would censor?” |
