Al Jazeera America to fold after just two years

Al Jazeera America, the thinly viewed cable news network, dropped a bombshell on Wednesday — it is shutting down its US operation in April.

AJA, owned by the oil-and-gas rich Qatar government, had been on the air for less than three years.

The company, which will have burned though $2 billion in the 619 days it will have been on the air, cited economic reasons for the move.

No doubt the price of oil was a factor.

When AJA went on the air on Aug. 20, 2013, oil was trading at about $100 a barrel. Today, it trades at about $30.

AJA has roughly 700 employees. Those in New York were informed of the news at a staff meeting at 2 p.m.

AJA will close at the end of April — and its broadcasts will be replaced with content from its overseas brethren.

Chief Executive Al Anstey and President Kate O’Brian had barely been seen around the office in recent days, prompting fears among the staff that something bad was brewing, sources said.

“It’s not unexpected,” one person close to the network told The Post. “The combination of oil prices dropping and Qatar cutting back on other things — they’re fighting all these wars, and oil has gone to nothing and that’s their only export.”

“Plus,” the person added, “no one was watching.”

Ironically, AJA’s biggest story in its short life came just weeks ago with its documentary, “The Dark Side.”

The documentary linked NFL quarterback Peyton Manning with home delivery of performance enhancer HGH (human growth hormone), which is banned by the NFL.

An employee at the Guyer Institute in Indianapolis said HGH was regularly mailed to the Manning home in the name of his wife, according to the documentary.

Manning denied the claims, and AJA’s source for the documentary backtracked from his comments.

Although it concerned one of the most popular and successful athletes in the country’s No. 1 sport, “The Dark Side” pulled in just 25,000 viewers, according to a source with knowledge of the channel’s ratings.

Worse than that, however, the documentary seemed to alienate many viewers.

The Qatari government paid an eye popping $500 million to acquire the predecessor network — Current TV — from former Vice President Al Gore and co-owner Joel Hyatt.

The owners went on to spend more than $2 billion, sources said, setting up 12 bureaus across the US and hiring an army of journalists.

But the network failed to gain traction with US viewers despite promises to tailor the news for American audiences.

More turmoil ensued when some staffers accused network managers of excluding women from meetings and anti-Semitic behavior.