The Al Jazeera America logo seen outside their new television broadcast studio on West 34th Street August 16, 2013 in New York. Al Jazeera America, which will launch on August 20, will have its headquarters in New York. Getty Images
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Al Jazeera America is suing AT&T over its refusal to carry the new network.
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Al Jazeera America went live Tuesday without carriage on AT&T after the telecom giant said Monday night it wouldn't broadcast the network on its U-verse service due to a contractual dispute, Bloomberg reported.
"Unfortunately AT&T's decision to unilaterally delete Al Jazeera America presented us with circumstances that were untenable -- an affiliate that has willfully and knowingly breached its contractual obligations," Al Jazeera America said in a statement Tuesday night. “Al Jazeera America's strong hope is to resolve this matter quickly so that AT&T's customers will have access to our unbiased, fact-based and in-depth coverage of the news that is important to Americans.”
An AT&T spokesman told Bloomberg only that the issue was an "inability to come to terms on a new agreement and due to certain breaches of the existing agreement we have decided not to carry Current TV on U-verse." Al Jazeera announced the purchase of Al Gore's former Current TV in January for $500 million.
Al Jazeera America has built up news bureaus and correspondents in a dozen cities in the U.S., but still has limited distribution in the country. AT&T U-verse has about 5 million U-verse customers.
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