BBC Arabia or Al Jazeera?

Who will the US cable news watching audience see first: BBC Arabia or Al Jazeera?

In Rania Habib's (Kipp Report) interview of Hosam El Sokkari (BBC's head of Arabic services), there is mention of a deal "in the US with a cable company to offer BBC Arabic on cable there. BBC Arabic is not available on the current satellite provision there, although ART has started broadcasting a one-hour daily in the US, in anticipation of launching our 24-hour service on cable." ART (Arab Radio and Television) America is distributed on the EchoStar platform by International Media Distribution (Hagey).

Similar to Al Jazeera, BBC Arabia has had their share of controversy, most significantly when the BBC aired an episode of Panorama critical of the Saudi Arabian government, BBC Arabia's funders at the time, causing the entire broadcast to be canceled after just two years (Habib). El Sokkari had a brief stint at Al Jazeera, the network that the core of BBC Arabia staff went to work for in 1996 (Seib, 2005:601).

However, there seems to be a not-so-subtle explanation of how BBC Arabia is different from its (toughest) competitor:

"One of our key differentiators is that we don’t consider ourselves as party to the events;
we do not make the news. We do not have views, we report views. Our success lies in our
ability to take a distance and make it possible for various parties to express themselves
the way they want, and in our ability to bring detailed facts and comprehensive views."

This comment is both very BBC-esque in its effort to promote 'objective journalism'. However, it clearly indicates its recognition of the problems concerning their competitor's 'objectivity', agenda-setting or side-taking.

With this in mind, as BBC Arabia regains prominence in IB, is it this distancing that makes North American cable companies more keen on making a deal?