The channel, which signed broadcast veteran Sir David Frost and BBC World frontman Stephen Cole last year, will link the Middle East headquarters in Doha, Qatar with regional broadcast centres in London, Washington and Kuala Lumpar.
It had been expected that the station would initially launch in the spring.
Nigel Parsons, the station's managing director, said at a media briefing in London: "If there are no problems, we could be on air by the World Cup." An exact launch date was not announced because it was hard to predict how long it would take to fine-tune high-definition television software.
Parsons said that the network expects to sign carriage agreements in the US with direct-to-home satellite and cable network operators prior to launch.
He would not reveal the size of the capital investment in the new channel nor its operating budget.
He said the channel could initially reach around 80m-100m households via cable and satellite with a global audience of up to 50m.
It is expected that non-Arabic speaking Arabs and others with English as a second or third language will watch.
Frost will join Al Jazeera in June, but details of his new role at the channel are unknown, while Cole has been named as the anchor of the London broadcast centre.
Frost finished his BBC Sunday morning politics show 'Breakfast with Frost' recently and has continued with other BBC projects such as 'Through the Keyhole'.
Cole has an extensive background in international television news, having held roles at Sky News, CNN International and BBC News 24 over the past 15 years, and has been working in journalism for 26 years.
The station has appointed TBWA\RAAD to handle its global launch marketing campaign.
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