It’s too bad, in a way, that American television cables are already crammed so full of fantastic programming. It might be interesting to get a different perspective. If that’s not illegal.

Al-Jazeera English will launch at midday and will be accessible in the UK to anyone with a satellite dish and via its broadband internet site. Yesterday it was revealed that the US cable network Comcast had pulled out of talks to carry the channel, citing lack of capacity.

It hopes to offer a new, Middle Eastern perspective on world events as an alternative to CNN and BBC World. But it will not be available in America via either EchoStar, Comcast or Rupert Murdoch’s DirecTV at launch, although US viewers will be able to tune in via the GlobeCast satellite.

We’ll miss the first installment of Sir David Frost’s new show in which he’ll interview Tony Blair. No, seriously, this is an Al Jazeera program scheduled for Friday. And yes, David Frost works for Al Jazeera. He claims to have satisfied himself, “with Whitehall and Washington”, that the channel is not connected with Al Qaeda, and that Qatar, whose emir funds Al Jazeera, is on excellent terms with Britain and the US.

The new TV channel is launching simultaneously in high definition worldwide. Except, of course, in the Land of the Free.