Al Sharqiya

Al Sharqiya ("The Eastern One") (Arabic: الشرقية‎) is Iraq's first privately owned satellite channel owned by the London, Baghdad and Dubai-based Iraqi media tycoon Saad al-Bazzaz, a secular nationalist from Mosul. Al-Bazzaz is also the Editor in Chief of the Azzaman newspaper. The station was launched in March 2004 and began regular transmission on 4 May 2004.

Al Sharqiya now has been gaining a growing audience with its mixture of popular current affairs, satire and Iraq's first reality TV programs.

The satellite channel with the greatest reach in Iraq, according to a June Ipsos-Stat poll, is the Saudi-owned news channel Al Arabiya with 41 percent reach, followed by private Iraqi satellite channel Al Sharqiya at 40 percent.