Bridges TV will highlight American experience with Muslim values

By Nidal M. Ibrahim
Washington File Special Correspondent

Buffalo, New York -- In late 2001, a few months after 9/11, Muzzammil S. Hassan was driving with his wife cross-country from Buffalo to Detroit for a business meeting. They were listening to a radio talk show on Islam.

"The radio show turned anti-Muslim," recalls Hassan, a 39-year-old former banker with a Master's in Business Administration from the University of Rochester.

"My wife got upset and she figured that, as a mother, there needed to be a medium where our children can grow up feeling self-confident about their identity. So she got on my case. 'You have an MBA. Why don't you write a business plan for something like that?' And she kept nagging me and nagging me," he said.

So, in the interest of domestic tranquility, Hassan said, he wrote a business plan to establish an English-language nationwide television channel that would be available via satellite and cable specifically targeting American Muslims.

Hassan and his dream -- thanks to his wife's directive -- have come a long way since that drive. Bridges Television Network Inc. is planning to launch later this year, right before Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting that will begin October 15. The main target audience for this new channel is the estimated population of eight million American and Canadian Muslims, two million of whom are Arab Americans.

"We're going to start with a 4 p.m. to midnight Central Time programming wheel," Hassan said. He said he wants the channel to go to a 24-hour format in the near future.

Already, Hassan has recruited an experienced program manager from a Public Broadcasting Service outlet in Los Angeles, who is traveling about the United States developing program content. He said Bridges TV has compiled a database of 200-plus independent producers and is in the process of acquiring more than 3,000 hours of English-language content.

The idea, Hassan said, is to target viewers with programming that will have multi-cultural acceptance. The planned programming will feature sports, news, advice, music, talk shows, religion, children, women, food, comedy and drama.

"This is about our American experience with Muslim values," Hassan said. "There are certain things you won't see in this channel in terms of sex and violence and other things that may be inappropriate in our culture. At the same time, it's about living a full life with our interests in sports, sitcoms, and comedy and food shows and travel and legal and financial advice shows."

News -- and politics -- also figures to be a major component, but Hassan said that function would be developed in-house.

"Daily news and a weekly political affair type of program is what we'd be producing on our own," he said.

A survey conducted on behalf of Bridges TV by Cornell University identified a talk show on Islamic issues as being one of the biggest needs among respondents. That was followed closely by shows on growing up Muslim in America, lessons on the Quran for children, and news shows on Islam-related topics.

The survey, which polled 5,000 American Muslims from the databases of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), found that a majority of respondents were willing to pay as much as $10 per month in addition to their current cable/satellite fee to receive an American Muslim channel.

Support

The fledgling channel has received support from a wide array of people, including some major American Muslim organizations and celebrities.

Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said he believes an American Muslim channel is greatly needed.

"To have a group that can provide more media for us to get our message out authentically and providing programs for people and who can deal with current affairs, it's a great idea," he said. "It has to be social and political from a Muslim perspective but speaking to the rest of American society."

Former boxing champion Muhammad Ali has said, "I think that the best way to overcome the erroneous image of American Muslims is to let the rest of America get to know us the way they would get to know their next door neighbor, seeing us in natural situations at work and at play.... Bridges TV will help make this happen."

Alex Kronemer, creator and co-producer of the acclaimed documentary "Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet," said, "Bridges TV is about celebrating the rich diversity and talents of American Muslims. It's a source of pride for all Muslims in America."

U.S. government officials also have expressed support for the idea of an American Muslim channel.

Stuart Holliday, alternate U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a former media assistant to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, said that Bridges TV represents an "expression of interest in promoting understanding and tolerance that are hallmarks of viable multi-ethnic, democratic and pluralist modern societies."

Others have demonstrated their support for the effort financially. Although he declined to reveal figures, Hassan said organizers have already raised the initial capital necessary to launch the channel.

"We're basically saying no to any new investor" at this time, he said. "You don't want to raise too much money too early, because then you're raising very expensive capital. We just want to raise enough capital that can take us to the next milestone."

As for the prospective audience, Hassan said more than 7,000 people have become members of the channel, paying $10 a month to support it.

"And we have over 40,000 people who signed up to subscribe to the channel once it becomes available," he said.

Hurdles

Although the idea may sound appealing and the niche certainly worth exploring, some television business analysts have questioned whether Bridges TV can overcome the problems inherent in the initial start-up phase for efforts of this kind.

"Getting distribution is the most significant new hurdle," said Kent Rice, president of International Channel Networks, a cable channel that provides programming in more than 20 Asian, European and Middle Eastern languages to more than 12 million subscribers.

Cable providers and satellite companies such as Echostar and Dish Network will first have to be convinced the demand for such a network exists, Rice said.

"The easiest way to get distribution is if you're connected to another company," Rice says. "If you're owned by Time Warner, you have an opportunity with Time Warner Cable. If you're owned by Viacom, they can help you. Having a connection with these large companies facilitates distribution. Being an independent presents more challenges."

Hassan acknowledges distribution remains the most significant hurdle for Bridges TV, but he is nonetheless confident.

"Cable company after cable company has been saying, 'We've never seen this kind of demand where people are signing up like this, even before launch'," Hassan said.

Accordingly, Bridges TV organizers are making some headway in this regard.

"Our goal is to launch on a national basis and we're talking to all the major cable and satellite operators," Hassan said. "We're in the various stages to get the carrier contracts done."

Although national carriers such as Comcast and Time Warner may agree to offer the channel, it will be local system operators that decide if and when they make room for Bridges TV on their schedule, Hassan said. To address this issue, Hassan has been busy addressing American Muslims across the United States, hoping they will contact their local cable company and ask that they pick up Bridges TV.

The International Channel's Rice raises another concern. Clearly one of the strengths of the proposed venture is the estimated population of eight million American Muslims who hail from different ethnic backgrounds. Yet that in itself may also be a weakness, Rice said.

"It's a diverse audience in the same way that Hispanics are a diverse audience that cover people from South America, Spain and Central America," Rice adds.

"Knowing how to reach people from an advertising and programming perspective can be a challenge."

Ultimately, the key questions that will determine whether Bridges TV has a future will be answered at that grassroots level.

"I think the core question is whether there is enough proven demand through advertising or research groups that would indicate a willingness to pay here," said Rice. "If you can prove there's that huge interest, then the distribution challenge becomes much easier to cope with."

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)