Al Rai to launch TV channel

AMMAN – The Jordan Press Foundation (JPF), Jordan’s largest newspaper publisher, is branching out into television and will launch a news channel by the end of this month. 

The new project was announced on Sunday, after  the Jordanian Saudi Company for Satellite Broadcasting (JASCO) signed an agreement to provide a satellite frequency and playout services to the JPF, which publishes the Arabic daily Al Rai and The Jordan Times. 

The satellite channel will be broadcast under the name “Jordan Al Rai”, and will be administered by Al Rai’s managing editor Taha Abu Reden. 

Abu Reden said the channel would carry the news content produced by Al Rai’s editorial team on local issues, adding that it will be launched by the end of the month. 

JPF’s move to visual media is a necessary change to adapt to the pressures of the digital era, he said.

Established in 1971, around 55 per cent of JPF shares are owned by the state-owned Social Security Investment Fund.

The agreement was signed by JPF Director General Farid Silwani and JASCO representative Ghaleb Rayahneh in the presence of the foundation’s chairman, Ramadan Rawashdeh, and Al Rai editor-in-chief Tareq Momani, the JPF said in a statement.