The channel is not worthless. Just like an airline that is going out of business can sell its’ slots at major airports as part of it’s liquidation.
Al Jazeera is not buying this channel to get the 35,000 viewers, it’s buying it to get an already signed distribution agreement with various cable companies that currently have 60,000,000 subscribers. AJ has been having trouble getting those companies to carry their channel. This is their way of greatly expanding their US coverage. Whatever viewers they get depends on whether they can provide content people want to watch.
It won’t work. Time Warner already dropped them. The same cable companies that didn’t accept them before, won’t accept them now.