BUFFALO, New York, 1 December 2004 — The first English-language cable television channel aimed at US and Canadian Muslims is set to launch, its chairman told AFP Monday, seeking to show positive images of the fast-growing community and to give America a realistic glimpse into Islamic life.
“It was my wife’s idea. She asked me to go and do it,” said Muzzammil Hassan, a Pakistani-born ex-banker with no prior television industry experience whose “Bridges TV” hit US airwaves yesterday. Its Canadian launch will follow soon, he said.
Hassan, 40, recalled that on a November 2001 road trip between Buffalo and Detroit, Michigan — home to the largest US Muslim community — he and his wife, who was then pregnant, listened to a radio program that took a sharp, derogatory tone against Muslims.
It was not the first time they had heard this tone in the post-Sept. 11 US media.
“She was offended by it. And she was seven months pregnant. So she felt that she didn’t want her kids growing up here without feeling strong about their identity both as an American and as a Muslim,” Hassan told AFP. “So she said, ‘Why don’t you do it?’”
Hassan, who lives outside Buffalo, where he was a banker and earned an MBA in nearby Rochester, made a business plan and went about courting investors.
When they looked at the demographics for the estimated seven million US Muslims — which show US Muslims’ average annual income $11,000 above the US average, and a growth rate of 6.2 percent a year, far outpacing the general population growth of under one percent — many were sold.
Bullish backers have invested $5 to $10 million already, The Buffalo News reported.
“When we did our market research, what people told us was that there are foreign-language channels available in the US, but they cater to their foreign-born parents and not their American children,” said Hassan, CEO of Bridges TV. “Bridges TV is trying to fill that gap,” he said.
Described as a “lifestyle” channel, the network now has about 20 employees and is available across the United States on Globecast satellite and on broadband, Hassan said. The channel also has signed a carriage affiliation with Comcast, the top US cable service, with 22 million subscribers. It will be available in Detroit on Comcast in January, Hassan added.
Programming ranges from Qur’anic and Islamic religious content to news, documentaries, soap operas and shows geared toward women and children, in a bid to reflect many facets of life.
Hassan has high hopes for the news programming, but there will also be lighter fare, such as “Allah Made Me Funny,” which spotlights a Muslim comedy tour.
And the new network will also offer a window on Muslim life “for mainstream Americans who want to better understand who Muslims are,” Hassan said.
Another part of “the purpose is to build bridges between American Muslims and mainstream America,” he said.
