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The BBC has launched a new Arabic language television station.
The channel is free to everyone in North Africa and the Middle East with a satellite or cable connection.
It is the BBC's first publicly-funded international TV service.
It will broadcast initially for twelve hours a day, but will become a twenty-four hour operation within a few months.
The BBC launched an Arabic TV station with Saudi Arabia in the mid 1990's, but it collapsed after a dispute over its news coverage.
The BBC is hoping the TV station will complement its Arabic radio and online services.
The website, bbcarabic.com, has also been relaunched today.
The channel will broadcast thirty minute news bulletins every hour and two main sixty minute bulletins at 1800 GMT and 2000 GMT.
It will also carry interviews and debates allowing viewers to submit comments.
The service has an annual budget of £25m (US $50m), made up of a UK government grant and funds that were freed up by the closure of the BBC's radio services for Eastern Europe.
BBC Arabic TV hopes to attract 20 million viewers per week by 2010 and 35 million users per week for all three Arabic services - TV, radio and on the web.
The channel will be distributed through the Arabsat, Eutelsat and Nilesat satellite systems.
