Ali Velshi — formerly with cable news network Al Jazeera America, which shuttered earlier this year — has joined MSNBC starting Wednesday (Oct. 19).

Before joining Al Jazeera America as host of Real Money With Ali Velshi, Velshi had been with CNN as an anchor and chief business correspondent.

In a note to staff, MSNBC President Phil Griffin did not say in what role Velchi was joining the network. “Ali’s sharp economic analysis will be a valuable asset to MSNBC as we dig deeper into every angle of the news and build on our ratings momentum in all dayparts,” Griffin said. “He will join our strong bench of talented journalists and report to Janelle Rodriguez.”

According to an MSNBC source, the network is still working out Velshi’s role. He won't have an immediate timeslot, but could join the network’s rotating host of anchors, or serve as a reporter, an analyst, or in a variety of roles. 

One America News Network (OAN) parent Herring Networks is exploring buying the shuttering Al Jazeera America to get carriage on cable systems.

"Al Jazeera America and One America News Network (OAN) launched within a few months of each other," OAN parent Herring Networks told Multichannel News. "The latest ratings information from third party Rentrak shows that One America News Network has over four times the ratings [of Al Jazeera America]. "We are inquiring about the opportunity to acquire Al Jazeera America," he said.

The idea would be to replace it with OAN and thereby secure carriage (just as Al Jazeera tried to do when it bought Al Gore's Current TV). Al Jazeera has 60.8 million subs, according to Nielsen. "We would replace with One America News Network," he said, which has "a superior brand and ratings."

Herring also said he would be willing to "soften the blow" to Al Jazeera staffers by "absorbing some of their operations such as New York City and D.C. staff."

OAN has a D.C. bureau and Herring said they have already been looking at the same building and studios Al Jazeera uses in New York.

Al Jazeera has been leasing space in the Newseum, which has some of the best views in the city, particularly of Capitol Hill, but Herring signaled he would probably stay with his 101 Constitution Ave, which he points out is the closest commercial building to the Capitol and where he has negotiated rooftop access for live shots.

Herrring Networks and its fans have succeeded in flooding the FCC's Charter-TWC-Bright House merger docket with filings calling for its carriage as part of that deal.

Charter does not carry OAN, which Herring has pointedly pointed out to the FCC, saying it was an example of Charter’s unfriendliness to independent networks. But OAN is also not carried by Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox or most other major MVPDs — with the exception of Verizon Communications’s FiOS TV and AT&T’s U-verse TV.

Adonis Hoffman, Former chief of staff to FCC member Mignon Clyburn and chairman of Business in the Public Interest, who has been advising Herring on carriage and policy matters, said: "Herring Networks is an innovative, creative and entrepreneurial company, with high quality news programming through One America News. It has been looking to expand its offering to a broader audience, and this would be win-win for Herring as an independent, and any one or all of the big cable players. I also believe the Commission would find this a convenient and efficacious way to address some of the concerns raised by Herring and other independents concerning carriage."

The 2016 presidential election is a year away, and yet this race for the White House has already established itself as arguably the most influential political campaign in cable television history.

For large, mainstream cable-news networks like Fox News Channel, CNN and CNBC, the Republican and Democratic debates have provided record ratings and, at least for now, some sizable year-to-year post-debate ratings lifts for their respective primetime lineups as they continue to cover the presidential candidates.

For niche and upstart news networks without scheduled televised debates, the 2016 presidential campaign is shaping up to be nothing short of a brand-defining event. Networks such as Al Jazeera America, One America News Network and Fusion are looking to superserve their respective audiences with issues-oriented political coverage that will stand out in a very noisy and crowded political-news marketplace.

“It’s actually happened this season a lot earlier than anyone expected,” Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy said. “It used to be that the political season began after Labor Day of the year the candidates were running. Now it’s starting much earlier, so people are really excited.”

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Indeed, Fox News Channel, CNN, CNBC and Fox Business Network have all set network ratings records with their various Republican and Democratic debates. The latest network to benefit from viewer interest in the GOP contest is FBN, which averaged 13.5 million viewers for its economics-driven debate last Tuesday (Nov. 10).

FBN’s performance follows record-setting showings by sister network Fox News’s Aug. 6 Republican debate, which drew 25 million viewers, cable’s largest-ever non-sports audience; CNN’s Sept. 16 Republican debate, which pulled in 23 million viewers; and CNBC’s much-talked-about Oct. 28 Republican debate, which garnered 14 million watchers.

CNN also drew 15 million viewers for its Oct. 13 Democratic debate.

The debates have helped all three networks post year-to-year gains for their primetime news and political-related programming as viewers seek out more information on the candidates and their positions.

“For these networks, in many ways, it’s a unique situation like a Super Bowl — they’re going to get a lot more sampling of viewers that normally do not watch or only occasionally watch their network,” Bill Carroll, senior vice president and director of content strategy for Katz Media Group, said. “Over time, we’ll see how they capitalize on that with what they do in front of and behind the debates and whether they can expose viewers to their personalities and their approach to news.”

The early interest in the 2016 campaign is not lost on new and upstart news networks that see the election season as an opportunity to firmly establish their brands with viewers. But although it’s important for niche and targeted news networks to cover breaking news from the candidates on the campaign trail (alongside the broadcasters and mainstream cable-news networks), it’s also crucial for those smaller services to provide content that’s relevant to their specific target audiences, network executives said.

“We see an incredible role for Fusion to play in addressing some of the gaps that you’re seeing in the coverage that we’re getting from traditional media companies,” said Daniel Eilemberg, senior vice president of Fusion, a news network targeted to millennial viewers.

For the two-year-old Fusion, jointly owned by Disney-ABC Television Group and Univision Communications, that means focusing on issues of interest to a young, diverse audience — including many first-time voters — such as climate change and technology.

“This is a generation that is more diverse and numerous than any other generation in the history of America, and they’ve seen technology affect their lives in different ways,” Eilemberg said. “They want to know what the government is going to do about these things, and we’re not having those discussions.”

Fusion doesn’t have journalists embedded with each respective campaign, but Eilemberg said the network’s reporters are working to get candidates to respond to specific issues across the country.

He pointed to the efforts of Jorge Ramos — host of the network’s America With Jorge Ramos and anchor of Univision’s flagship newscast Noticiero Univision — who famously in August was escorted out of a press conference for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump after pressing Trump on his controversial views on immigration.

“We have a group of journalists that have really strong specializations, and we’ve asked them to track the candidates on those issues across the country,” Fusion’s Eilemberg said. “They are asking the questions that other reporters may not be asking.”

Al Jazeera America will tackle its first presidential election by focusing on the stories behind the candidates and the election process. The 61 millionsubscriber network — which launched in 2013 after Qatar-based Al Jazeera purchased the Al Gore-founded channel Current TV — will partner with the Center for Public Integrity to investigate the flow of money into political campaigns, AJAM president Kate O’Brian said.

The network’s “Buying of the President” franchise will yield several special reports in 2016, including in-depth financial profiles of the top candidates and the role of so-called Super PACs within the election process.

“We’re talking about the candidates and their policies, but we’re explaining to our viewers what the effects of those policies might be and going for the human story,” O’Brian said. “We believe its important to not repeat the same lines over and over again all day long, but to move the issues and stories forward by illuminating things for our audience.”

The need to provide viewers with an alternative voice to mainstream broadcast and cable news outlets is a priority for up-and-coming news networks. TheBlaze, founded in 2011 by conservative media personality Glenn Beck, will tailor its election coverage to connect more directly with a core audience that is already engaged with the brand through its website.

TheBlaze TV CEO Kraig Kitchin said the network will look to empower viewers through its coverage of the issues, subjects and candidates during an election season where more people are looking to get their voices heard. TheBlaze will talk to its audience via social media such as Facebook and Twitter, which Kitchin called an unprecedented “amplification” of individual voices with regards to politics.

The presidential election “is an approachable conversation more than ever before,” Kitchin said. “There is a sense of empowerment; that individuals have a voice in this conversation, either through social media or through mass media or through participation in events where many more people think that they may have influence on an outcome by their participation.”

Al Jazeera America will tap the electorate with a series of regularly scheduled vignettes in which viewers from across the political spectrum will have a chance to discuss the issues that affect them, O’Brian said.

And the candidates themselves are showing interest in alternative coverage from the smaller news outlets, network executives said. Newsmax’s Ruddy said candidates from Trump to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) have already appeared on the network. Newsmax hopes to invite all of the GOP candidates to a presidential forum somewhere in the South Florida area in February, Ruddy said, but no further details were available at press time.

“We see Newsmax as a neutral platform and we want all the candidates to be able to come on and detail their platforms and positions without feeling that we’re going to ambush them or give them gotcha questions,” he said. “We’ve had almost every single Republican candidate in the field appear on the network and most appear pretty regularly. This is really democracy at work.”

TheBlaze earlier this month threw its hat into the ring to host the Republican National Committee’s Feb. 26 GOP debate in Houston. The RNC pulled the debate from NBC after what GOP officials said were biased questions from CNBC moderators during the Oct. 28 debate. The RNC has yet to disclose further plans for the Houston event.

In a letter to the RNC, TheBlaze’s Beck said the network was prepared to “produce a new kind of debate in both substance and distribution that would stay away from questions that produce only ‘sound bites.’ ”

With all of the cable news networks offering news on the 2016 campaign almost a year before Election Day, some executives expressed concern that viewer fatigue could set in even before next year’s primary season kicks off . “There is certainly can be some viewer fatigue, so you have to find a balance and a fi ne line with that,” TheBlaze’s Kitchin said.

To avoid that situation, Al Jazeera’s O’Brian said networks need to keep providing interesting, thought-provoking content that will keep viewers riveted throughout the long political season.

“If you are a media organization that is repetitive and does the same thing all the time, viewers will look for something else,” she said. “There are those who can spend all day talking about one soundbite from one candidate, and have pundits weighing in on the views of the horse race. It’s not about the horse race, but about the issues.”

As expected, Al Jazeera America said it has renewed its carriage agreement with DirecTV, including the upcoming launch of Al Jazeera America HD.

Terms of the renewal were not disclosed.

“We’re pleased to extend our partnership with DirecTV,” said Al Jazeera America CEO Al Anstey in a statement. “Al Jazeera America is committed to its mission of delivering in-depth, unbiased and trusted journalism of the highest quality. I look forward to continuing to work together to grow our audience and deliver more compelling news and remarkable stories that inform, educate and inspire audiences across America.”

AJAM will continue to broadcast on DirecTV channel 347.

The renewal deal comes on the heels of a settlement of DirecTV’s year-old lawsuit against the channel. Terms of that settlement also were not disclosed. 

Cable networks are gearing up to recognize the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the devastation the storm unleashed on the Gulf Coast region in general and on New Orleans in particular.

In 2005 cable networks were among the first outlets to show the images of the stunning destruction to property and people’s lives in the days following when Katrina hit New Orleans and other areas on the Gulf of Mexico Coast on Aug. 29 (it had made landfall in Florida on Aug. 25). Other specials through the years such as HBO’s Emmy winning When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts and the HBO drama series Treme helped chronicle the effects on life in the Gulf in the immediate aftermath of the storm. 

Tonight (Friday, Aug. 21) at 10 p.m. ET, Fox News Channel has slated a one-hour special, Fox News Reporting: Timeline of Hurricane Katrina – 10th Anniversary, looking at the timeline of devastating events and the roles played by local, state and federal decision makers, all the way up to President George W. Bush. Anchors and correspondents including Shepard Smith, Bill Hemmer, Greta Van Susteren, Geraldo Rivera, Rick Leventhal, Steve Harrigan and Phil Keating will be featured.

CNN on Monday, Aug. 24, will premiere Katrina: The Storm That Never Stopped, in which network anchor Anderson Cooper travels back to the Gulf Coast and looks to reconnect with those residents and people he spoke to a decade ago in the aftermath of the storm.

Al Jazeera America on Sunday night (10 p.m. ET) airs a new original documentary, Only New Orleans, by filmmaker Vassili Silovic, exploring the role of music in New Orleans and how the city used its roots in jazz, R&B, rock 'n' roll, soul, funk, reggae and hip-hop to re-build spirits after Hurricane Katrina. Anchor Joie Chen will host two special programs from New Orleans on Friday, Aug. 28, and Saturday Aug. 29, at 10 p.m. ET, including reporting from Soledad O’Brien in two hard-hit neighborhoods. And on Monday, Aug. 24, at 6:30 p.m. ET, science and technology program TechKnow investigates the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the results of $12 billion spent to rebuild, re-engineer and re-think the way New Orleans is protected.

The Weather Channel has a week of Katrina-themed content lined up, including Katrina 2065, a special that looks at likely scenarios that could take place if a similar hurricane hit 50 years from now. On Friday, Aug. 28, TWC will air a special report Katrina: 10 Years Later, with Al Roker and Stephanie Abrams. Roker and Abrams will anchor Wake Up With Al live from New Orleans that morning while Jim Cantore (pictured during Katrina) returns to Gulfport, Miss., where he covered Katrina in 2005 for live reports throughout AMHQ. TWC's “Hurricane Week” will air live and long-form programs and specials during the week, as well.

On Friday, Aug. 28, TV One will look at the plight of education in New Orleans a decade after Katrina as part of its daily News One Now morning news series hosted by Roland Martin.

BET on Wednesday, Aug. 26, will premiere a news special, Katrina 10 Years Later: Through Hell in High Water, that will chronicle the lives of a diverse group of people who survived Katrina. 

ESPN has a week of cross-platform content planned, including on digital and in ESPN The Magazine. SportsCentercoverage begins on Sunday morning (Aug. 23, debuting at 10 a.m. ET), with tributes to the city (“Dear New Orleans”) from the likes of Archie Manning and Steve Gleason. New Orleans native Stan Verrett, whose childhood neighborhood was devastated by the effects of Katrina, will host afternoon segments of SportsCenter from his hometown on Friday, Aug. 28, and contribute pieces during the week including one on his return with his mother, Dr. Joyce Verrett, to his parents’ home and neighborhood.

ESPN’s Outside the Lines will feature Hurricane Katrina-related content on Friday, Aug. 28. And the documentary Wuerffel’s Way, about former University of Florida and New Orleans Saints quarterback Danny Wuerffel leading recovery efforts for the Desire Street Academy in New Orleans, will premiere on the SEC Network on Tuesday, Sept. 1, at 9 P.M. ET. The documentary focuses on the journey of former University of Florida and New Orleans Saints quarterback Danny Wuerffel – from winning the Heisman Trophy and a National Championship to spearheading, and then leading recovery efforts for that community outreach program after the devastation of Katrina.

And in real life (apart from TV), FYI has teamed with the affordable housing non-profit Make It Right to build a solar-powered new tiny home in New Orleans for a middle school teacher. On Friday, Aug. 28, they will host a house-warming event at the new 469-square-foot domicile in the Lower 9th Ward, including Tiny House Nation host John Weisbarth.

Kent Gibbons contributed to this article.

Al Jazeera America will debut four new episodes of its Talk To Al Jazeera focusing on prominent African-Americans as part of its recognition of Black History Month, the network said Friday.

The service will also launch a month-long social media campaign under the tagline #BrandingBlack that will look to raise important questions about the line between multicultural marketing and potential perpetuation of stereotypes.

The Talk to Al Jazeera lineup for February includes interviews with American ballet dancer Misty Copeland (Feb. 1); Recording artist Akon  (Feb. 8); comedian/activist Rain Pryor (Feb. 15) and Writer/photographer Taiye Selasi (Feb. 22).

In addition, the network’s series Real Money with Ali Velshi will tackle several issues during  the month including  the Commercialization of Black History Month (Feb. 6);  Is MLK too old-school a symbol for Black History Month?(Feb. 13); “Selma”/Branding Black History Month (Feb. 20) and Black History Month & Ferguson (Feb. 27).

Al Jazeera America will debut the three-part story Burn Pits tonight, where veterans discuss their illnesses and their fight for government compensation from the practice in Iraq and Afghanistan, the network announced today.

Consider This will air the first report at 10 p.m. tonight (Dec. 1), while parts two and three will debut Dec. 2 at 9 p.m. on America Tonight.

Sheila MacVicar delves into the crisis of burn pits, where thousands of troops have been affected with life-altering illnesses, such as cancer and respiratory disease. 

The show presents stories from veterans and their families as they strive for compensation from the DOD and VA. MacVicar also brings viewers to the doctor at the forefront of the diagnosis, as he finds out about the continuation of burn pits, which was made unlawful in 2009.

The practice is used  at U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan to burn trash, including metals, cars, electronics and human waste, which is in turn releases toxins into the air.  

Along with victims, a former VA official and whistleblower is interviewed, where he says the DOD is not taking responsibility for the link between veterans' illnesses and burn pits.  

Al Jazeera America’s America Tonight series will revisit its 2013 report on campus sex crimes in November with the series Sex Crimes On Campus – One Year Later.

This three-part series debuting Nov. 10 updates the network’s in-depth look at the issue of campus sexual assault and the nation’s response, said network officials.

In advance of the new three-part series, Al Jazeera America Nov. 9 will present Sex Crimes on Campus Revisited, a half-hour special featuring highlights of the original three-part series that aired in October 2013.

Al Jazeera America will air new episodes of its investigative documentary program Fault Lines beginning later this month, the network said Monday.

The show will feature a special on fighting the terrorist group ISIL airing Oct. 18.  Overall, Al Jazeera has scheduled five additional Fault Lines episodes throughout the end of the year. The episodes will also air in their entirety online, said network officials.

 In addition, Al Jazeera America Saturday (Oct. 11) will air a repeat episode of Haiti in a Time of Cholera, which recently earned the channel’s first Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism.

Al Jazeera will support the new episodes of Fault Lines and its online debut with a national TV campaign across multiple distributors including Comcast XFinity, Time Warner Cable New York, DISH Network, and AT&T U-verse.  The campaign, which debuted today, is the channel’s first campaign supporting the series and will also be seen on a variety of networks including ESPN, USA, CNN, and AMC. 

 “The new Fault Lines episodes continue the hard-hitting, ground-breaking investigative journalism that viewers have come to expect from Al Jazeera,” said Shannon High, network senior vice president of  documentaries and programming. “We’re excited that viewers will now also be able to watch the award-winning series online and on-air.”

The network also announced Monday that it has kicked off its mid-term election coverage today under the America Votes 2014 banner. The network’s coverage will begin tonight with a special America Votes: Fed Up In Kentucky. Beginning tomorrow, the network will debut Power Politics, a daily series featuring election segments that examine the issues during the 4 p.m., 6 p.m., 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. hours. Also tomorrow the network will debut Deep Dive, a daily news segment that takes an in-depth look at specific issues around the country.

On weekends, the network will air a half hour Power Politics special through Nov. 8., while on Oct. 28, the network will air a two-hour, issue-oriented, pre-midterms special.

In addition, the network on Oct. 19 will premiere Midterms, a weekly, three-episode documentary series about the upcoming 2014 elections and focus on some of the hotly contested political races in the country, said the network.  

HBO and BBC World News led cable-network winners at last night’s 35th annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards.

The premium channel won two awards at the the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences-produced ceremony held in New York last night, including Outstanding Informational Programming-long form for its documentary The Crash Reel (pictured). BBC World News won Emmys for two BBC World News Americaprograms, on Africa and Syria.

Other cable networks garnering single News & Documentary Emmy awards were Al Jazeera America; CNN and CNN en Espanol; Discovery Channel and Discovery Channel en Espanol; H2; ID: Investigation Discovery; National Geographic Channel and National Geographic Wild.

Among all networks, cable and broadcast, PBS had the biggest single haul of awards with 11, followed by CBS with 10 and ABC with three.

A complete list of the 35th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Award recipients can be found at the National Academy's web site. (This story was updated to include the BBC World News awards.)

Midterms, a three-part documentary series covering this year's political races in Iowa, Colorado and North Carolina, has been scheduled to air on Al Jazeera America beginning Sunday, October 19. The subsequent episodes will air the following two weeks, on Sunday, October 26 and Sunday, November 2. 

The first episode of the series will focus on the race for the Senate seat in Iowa between Democratic Congressman Bruce Braley and Republican State Senator Joni Ernst, as well as the race for a seat in the House of Representatives. The next episode will focus on former Democratic Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff's attempt to unseat Republican incumbent Mike Coffman as represntative of the state's 6th district. The final episode follows North Carolina Speaker of the House Thom Tillis's challenge of Democratic incumbent Senator Kay Hagan. 

All three episodes of the series directed by AJ Schnack, whose 2013 film Caucus profiled the 2011 Republican race in the Iowa Caucus. The series is intended to present an unbiased portrayal of the American congressional election cycle.

"We want the audience to have a close-up, intimate portrait of these candidates and the issues that will define 2014," said Schnack in a release. "We're thrilled to be working with Al Jazeera America to bring viewers a truly unprecedented, bi-partisan look at these races as they are unfolding."

Al Jazeera America has slated a one-hour special report for tonight (Aug. 1) at 11 p.m. ET and 8 p.m. PT with breaking news and analysis of the ongoing war between Israeli defense forces and Hamas in Gaza. Gaza: Witness To War will be hosted by Jerusalem correspondent Nick Schifrin, whose live report in Gaza on Thursday night featured the sight of an Israeli missile strike on a building nearby causing severe damage to the structure.

The special will also include reports from Paul Beban, Jonathan Betz, John Terrett, Stefanie Dekker, John Hendren and Charles Stratford, Al Jazeera America said. It will introduce Gazans cut off and caught in the crossfire; take a closer look at Hamas, its weapons and tunnels that lead into Israel; and show how residents are striving to preserve everyday life amid the death and destruction, the network said.