Al Jazeera wants to grow, but as a news channel there are severe limitations. News is commoditized, and there is heavy competition. In the world of television, the most valuable content is content that viewers cannot get anywhere else.

That is why in the U.S. and cross the globe the most valuable TV content is live sports. Al Jazeera knows this, and as Reuters reports, it is setting its sights on acquiring some of the most high-profile sports rights around: The English Premier League. The EPL is currently broadcast in the U.K. by Sky Sports, but that may change:

“The Qataris see sport as being an entree for themselves on the world stage, and the next piece in the jigsaw puzzle is a really big rights acquisition,” said Graham Shear, a lawyer specializing in sports matters.

“The Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore is trying to generate a competition; he would love to see Sky and Al Jazeera go head to head.”

In Mediabistro’s Facebook Marketing Boot Camp starting April 24, Starbucks and Hearsay Social’s Clara Shih (left) will show you case studies of how the most successful brands use Facebook to get results. Other speakers for the online conference and workshop include Kelly Winters (Facebook), Evan James Andrews (Current TV), and Geoffrey Colon (Ogilvy). Register now.

After co-hosting “Morning Joe” this morning, MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski headed to the White House where she helped moderate a Women and the Economy forum. MSNBC and CNN both took live remarks from Pres. Obama at the gathering who gave a shout-out to Brzezinski, calling her the “better half” of “Morning Joe.”

I want to thank Mika for helping moderate this morning and for proving on your show that women are the better half. (applause) Joe’s not denying it. He’s not denying it.

25-54 demographic (Live +SD)

• Total day: FNC: 347 | MSNBC: 133 | CNN: 96 | HLN: 74

• Primetime: FNC: 537 | MSNBC: 273 | CNN: 129 | HLN: 82

	5p:	6p:	7p:	8p:	9p:	10p:	11p:	12a:
FNC	TheFive:	Baier:	Shep:	O’Reilly:	Hannity:	Greta:	O’Reilly:	Hannity:
	424	438	359	627	520	458	372	351
MSNBC	Matthews:	Sharpton:	Matthews:	EdShow:	Maddow:	O’Donnell:	EdShow:	Maddow:
	118	149	172	225	338	257	105	120
CNN	Blitzer:	KingUSA:	Burnett:	Cooper:	Morgan:	Cooper:	Burnett:	Morgan:
	110	79	74	119	166	102	79	71
HLN	Special:	Prime:	VelezMitchell:	Grace:	DrDrew:	Grace:	Showbiz:	DrDrew:
	32	56	66	114	64	73	78	108

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As expected (again) Current TV has counter-sued Keith Olbermann, laying out its argument that it was Olbermann who was in breach of contract, and not network executives.

Just as Olbermann portrayed Current executives in a negative light in his filing, Current paints Olbermann as an ego-maniacal jerk in its filing.

Current argues that Olbermann refused to promote the network or its shows, and would order staff not to promote “Countdown” when he wasn’t anchoring. It also pulled some embarrassing emails and events from Olbermann’s tenure at the network. After a picture of the “Countdown” set leaked to the press by the designer, Olbermann asked Current CEO Joel Hyatt “Can you assassinate him, please?” Another incident saw Olbermann throw a glass mug against the wall of the studio, shattering it.

The full suit is embedded after the jump.

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Betty Nguyen who’s been with CBS News for the last two years, is leaving the network.

“Preparing to anchor my last show on CBS News,” Nguyen Tweeted this morning, just before anchoring the early morning “CBS Morning News.”

“It’s been an incredible experience working with some of the best in the business.”

Nguyen joined CBS News from CNN in 2010 to anchor “Morning News” and work on stories for “The Early Show.” Nguyen added on Twitter, “Stay tuned for where to find me next…”

MSNBC hosted a party at Manhattan’s Ace Hotel last night in celebration of Rachel Maddow‘s first book, Drift, which tops the New York Times Best Sellers list this week.

“When we gave [Rachel] a show on September 9, 2008, we had never, ever won at 9 o’clock,” MNSBC president Phil Griffin (pictured here with Maddow and NBC News president Steve Capus) said during his toast. “Larry King was an icon — never, in our 12-year history. Rachel goes in there, she beat Larry the first day, the first month, the first year, the second year, the third year. And now, this is her first book, and boom! Number one.”

Maddow, who arrived at the event late because the taping of her primetime show ran over, said she could not have written “a real book, and not a collection of cable news observations,” without support and resources from MSNBC.

“I don’t exactly know why I deserve to have an employer this supportive of something like this, but I am very, very, very thankful. Also, they paid for this [party],” she joked.

Maddow, a cocktail buff, hand-picked the party’s drink — a “French 75,” which she said is named after a French artillery piece. TVNewser spotted Chris Hayes and Alex Wagner and in the crowd, as well as Dan Rather, Gail Collins, Sandra Bernhard and Andre Leon Talley.

More pictures after the jump.

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We’re keeping you up to date on the day-to-day ratings race between the “Today” show and “Good Morning America,” as Katie Couric returns to the set of her former morning show rival.

On Thursday morning, 5.07 million people chose to watch “Today,” while 4.64 million chose GMA, leaving a +435,000 total viewer gap, the widest of the week. In the younger demo, “Today” drew 2.09M to “GMA’s” 1.86M which left the smallest A25-54 gap of the week (+228,000). The season-to-date demo gap stands at +442,000 viewers.

Here’s Monday
Here’s Tuesday
Here’s Wednesday

This morning producers put together this look-back on Couric’s final day on “GMA”. Robin Roberts is back on Monday.

For several days, several CNN correspondents and programs have been reporting on and discussing a portion of the 911 call made by George Zimmerman in the moments before he shot Trayvon Martin. They even brought in audio experts to try and get to the bottom of it.

At issue: what words Zimmerman used to describe Martin. Was it:

F*cking c*ons, as was first reported. Or was it:
F*cking cold, as as speculated next. Or was it:
F*cking punks, as Zimmerman’s lawyers claim.

This morning, CNN anchor Kyra Phillips played the clip five times on her show. (Although because the word “fucking” was used, CNN bleeped it, making it even harder to make out.) In the end, Phillips revealed, “several members of CNN’s editorial staff repeatedly reviewed the tape but could not make a consensus on whether he used a slur.”

(h/t Newsblues)

Fox News and Fox 11 LA reporter Courtney Friel and her husband former CNN correspondent Carter Evans welcomed baby #2 into the world about six hours ago. And, naturally, Friel Tweeted it.

Cameron joins older brother Cash who was born on 1-1-11.

In its first week as an hour-long show, “Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer” wins the Sunday morning race… with an asterisk. The numbers only reflect the first half hour. As we explained the other day, the show airs as a full hour in just 62% of the nation. NBC’s “Meet the Press” with fill-in host Savannah Guthrie and roundtable moderator Joe Scarborough, came in second in total viewers and third in younger viewers. ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” took second in the demo trailing “Meet” by 20,000 total viewers.

Compared to last year, only “Face” is up in both total viewers (11%) and in younger viewers (15%). ABC’s “This Week” grew in Total Viewers (+11%).

The numbers for April 1:

Network	Program	Total Viewers	A25-54
CBS	“Face the Nation”	3.14M	974K
NBC	“Meet the Press”	2.63M	793K
ABC	“This Week”	2.61M	855K
FOX	“Fox News Sunday”	1.06M	404K
Univision	“Al Punto”	NA	NA