Al Jazeera America Launch Marred Last Night By AT&T Decision To Drop Channel The Night Before Going Live, Al Jazeera Sues; Stops App Streaming For US Viewers

Al Jazeera America launched last night, Tuesday at 3 p.m. Eastern time, but the launch was marred by AT&T's decision to drop the channel the night before. Al Jazeera is responding by suing AT&T. Al Jazeera has also decided to stop live English streaming on the app for US viewers following the launch.

Al Jazeera, a channel based in Qatar, launched on four major cable and satellite TV distributors, including Comcast, Verizon FiOS, DirecTV, and Dish Network, with access to about 43 million households.

But several hours after going live in the United States, Al Jazeera America (AJAM) filed a lawsuit against AT&T, after the telecom giant made a decision Monday night to drop the channel from its U-Verse service by citing "contractual disputes," USA Today reports.

AT&T turned off the channel at 11:59 p.m. ET Monday.

"Unfortunately, AT&T's decision to unilaterally delete Al Jazeera America presented us with circumstances that were untenable -- an affiliate that has willfully and knowingly breached its contractual obligations," AJAM said in a statement issued Tuesday night. "Al Jazeera America's strong hope is to resolve this matter quickly."

The network said it had "no choice" but to file a lawsuit, The Chicago Tribune reports, via Reuters.

The move "took a chunk out of Al Jazeera America's distribution," The Wall Street Journal reports, though according to The Chicago Tribune, no audience ratings data are available yet.

AT&T did not provide details of their dispute, but said it "could not reach an agreement with the owner (Al Jazeera) that we believed provided value for our customers and our business," USA Today reports.

Al Jazeera America's launch also resulted in the cancellation of live streaming Al Jazeera English for viewers in the U.S. on their mobile apps, a decision made in order to appease cable-satellite distributors, USA Today reports. Though Al Jazeera English reached fewer than five million U.S. households, the live streaming had developed a loyal following, the website reports.

Media critic Howard Kurtz, speaking on rival Fox News Channel, said Al Jazeera America's early coverage was "not much different, at least so far, than what you might see on Fox News, CNN or MSNBC." One top story on Egypt was "right down the middle" in terms of balance, he said, The Chicago Tribute notes.