Rapid TV News reports that Turkey’s TRT started its all-Arabic service last week on April 5th. TRT Director-General Ibrahim Sahin said that TRT's new channel "would enable Turkey and Arab countries to know each other directly and better". The TV channel would reach 350 million people throughout the Arab world through 3 satellites.

Rapid TVNews reports that the pay-TV merger between Showtime Arabia and rival Orbit was concluded on time at the end of last month, according to reports out of Kuwait on Aug 11. A statement from Kuwait-based Kipco said the agreement was formally wrapped on July 31.

Rapid TVNews reports that there are four satellite operators dominating Middle East and North African broadcasting: Arabsat, Nilesat, Eutelsat and Noorsat. However, these four players occupy just two dominant orbital positions, Arabsat’s 25.5 deg East, and Nilesat’s at 7 deg West.

RapidTVNews reports that Hamas-backed Al-Aqsa TV has been “banned” by French broadcasting authorities just hours after transmissions started from Eutelsat-associated operator Noorsat. Noorsat uses capacity leased from Eutelsat. Palestinian group Hamas's television channel was taken off the air in Europe less than 24 hours after it was added to the satellite network.