ARAB COM

Reaching Social Media Audiences

2012-02-03T08:39:00.000-08:00

This post aims at explaining what is the best approach for a brand (consumer, political or institutional) to handle the main social media platforms. This is solely based on my experience (ie: don't ask me about the scientific proof!)

I've realized that many people find it difficult to grasp what are the key differences between the various social media platforms, and how they can leverage each to promote their messages. I find that the best approach is a simple comparison to what most people/brand managers know instinctively: traditional media.

YouTube:
Think of YouTube as your TV digital subscription. You have access to a number of channels: news, entertainment, oldies etc...You can zap, record your favorite movie, pause, go to the bathroom and playback anytime.

Facebook:
Let's face it, most of us look at Facebook for the pictures of our friends. Without images, Facebook would definitely not be Facebook. They are what videos are for YouTube; the backbone of the entire structure. Facebook is very similar to fashion magazines: a model based on still images with short text. Brand pages resemble more the "letter to the editor" section that most major magazines have: the brand manager (or magazine editor) selects what to show, edits, highlights...and sometimes can even answer.

Twitter:
If you follow around 300 people, you can expect to get every 5 minutes around 20 new tweets (or short messages) The whole format of Twitter is based on these snippets of info thrown at you from the various people you follow. Genius....but rehashed genius. You actually consume Twitter in a very similar manner than what you do when listening to radio: you can do two activities in parallel; read the NY Times in one Tab, and check Twitter every 10 seconds in another tab (more difficult to do in Facebook or YouTube)

Google +:
To be honest, I haven't caught up with Google + that much yet. I think their model is closer to the town hall meetings so familiar to the anglo-saxon culture.

What does that say on using these various platforms and their users?

- On YouTube:
The audience: a very captive audience that will stay long on the site, but one that keeps zapping from channel to channel.
To capture the attention: create your own unique and attractive content, or make them watch your ad to get access to their movie (like pay -per-view makes you pay to see the movie)
To advertize: targeted inserted ads, branded content, brand placement

- On Facebook:
The audience: a mildly captive audience, flipping from page to page. Sometimes reading sometimes just looking at the pictures (image yourself reading a magazine)

To capture the attention: as in magazines, you have to have either a shock message or a very attractive visual
To advertize: see before

- On Twitter:
The audience: people doing various things at the same time. Their attention is minimal. They will only stop and "listen" if the topic seems interesting (as in radio)
To capture the attention: Short bursts of repetitive messages (think of the annoying supermarket ads on radio: today - and today only- special discount of 20% on frozen fish!)

To advertize: Manage to place these short repetitive messages with special offers all day long

- On Google +:
Like any Town-hall meeting, be the best speaker you can be ! (= I don't know what to say here)

Syria: the Libyan link

2011-12-24T01:48:00.001-08:00

France's LeFigaro reported briefly today on Libyan troops helping out the Syrian Free Army against Assad's regime.

The report is very brief and does not shed more light on the reasons and implications of this. I will try here to do that.

It is interesting first to note that the links between Syria and Libya are old and complex. During the war between Kaddafi and Libya's NTC (rebels), Syria's Assad provided a major support to Kaddafi. Indeed before NATO's air blocade over Libya, it was Syrian pilots who bombed the civilians. They were more willing to do this than Kaddafi's unmotivated troops or his mercenaries (not very knowledgeable of airplane usage)

During Kaddafi's last days, he regularly provided messages to Syrian TV channels close to Assad's regime, and after his fall, the NTC was the first to officially recognize Syria's own opposition as the legitimate government.

The interesting part of LeFigaro's article is that the Libyan troops helping out Syria's rebels are Abdelhakim Belhadj's people. His implication is very telling:

Belhadj is an Islamist, previously jailed in Guantanamo, and trained in Afghanistan.During the Libyan uprising he led the unit that took over Tripoli. Belhadj was notoriously helped by British and French special troops, and financed by Qatar. Many assume he now works for the CIA. In the Libyan political structure he is the representative of the militant Islamists in the power structure. He was reportedly arrested recently by another Libyan group as he was traveling to Turkey with large cash amounts (source says: $600K)

Belhadj's involvement in Syria is therefore a strong indicator of:
1. US and Qatar's decision to beef up the military aspect of the uprising
2. The strong Turkish-Qatari coordination
3. the increased involvement of Islamist troops and coordinators in Syria's armed rebellion.

Add to this the various reports of French secret service personnel training some of the Syrian rebels, and what you have is the recipe for a prolonged civil war.

The situation is very similar to Lebanon v.1975, many back then also believed that the war would end quickly....it took 30 years!

Syrian expat boom

2011-12-11T22:49:00.001-08:00

There is a visible surge in the number of Syrian daily workers in Lebanon. Just walk around Beirut's streets and you can notice that the numbers have significantly increased.

This is probably one of the most "visible" impacts of economic & political problems Syria is facing. Its excess man-force is being sent to Lebanon. This can help Syria's Assad in two ways:

1. bring in much needed currency back to Syria (earn in Lebanon, send to Syria)

2. get rid of a large number of young males, that could eventually become protesters in Syria. Interestingly enough, it is easier for Syria's Assad to control this population in Lebanon than in Syria itself. All Syrians leaving Syria needed to register with the Moukhabarat (secret service), and Syria's Lebanese allies are powerful enough to "control" these migrant workers.

I discussed with a small group of these recent arrival workers this morning. While very vague (or rather citing all possible reasons) on the reasons for coming to Beirut, they clearly made me feel that they were strongly "encouraged" to do so...

Communication vs Pragmatism

2011-11-29T22:13:00.001-08:00

update: a few hours after publishing this post, the Mikati government with the tacit approval of Hezbollah has approved the financing of the STL.

...or why Hezbollah's self interest actually calls for financing the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) for Rafic Hariri's murder (Lebanon is due to pay its share of the financing of the tribunal. Prime Minister Mikati has said he would resign if it is not approved by the government)

Hezbollah is confronted today with the most basic of all political choices: prefer communications and the party's image or act pragmatically and prioritize the party's political interests.

The communication choice, would be to utterly reject the STL. This has been Hezbollah's stance since 2005: The tribunal has been portrayed by Hassan Nassrallah and every party member as a US and Israeli tool, and Nassrallah has openly said that he will never accept to finance it. Doing so now, might seem for Hezbollah's constituents and allies as a sign of weakness.

On the other hand, the pragmatic choice would be to go for the financing considering the alternatives the party has, and for the following reasons:
1. A strong Assad in Syria is a survival necessity for Hezbollah. Syria's own interests in Lebanon requires the prime minister to remain. In light of the Arab Leagues attacks on Syria, Assad needs a friendly Arab government, and this Lebanese government has proven to be very friendly with Assad's regime.
2. Financing the tribunal will provide PM Najib Mikati with a needed boost within his own Sunnite community. Both Assad and Hezbollah need to counter the influence of Saad Hariri within the Lebanese Sunnite community. Reinforcing Mikati can therefore only benefit Hezbollah on the short term.
3. A quick alternatives political analysis, shows that even if Lebanon does not finance the Tribunal, the Tribunal will probably keep going on. So what ever Hezbollah's moves are, the Tribunal will remain. Better therefore for the party to reinforce Assad and Mikati.
4. By financing the Tribunal, Hezbollah would have stripped the main communication argument March 14th has been using against the Government. M14 will find themselves in a difficult communications situation.
5. Hezbollah can barter this tacit approval of the financing with a major political gain for the party or its allies (like Aoun): revive the shouhoud el zour case, finance Aoun's pet projects etc...Thus ultimately benefiting with the public opinion.

Hezbollah's history has shown that being politically pragmatic has always been a key feature of their policy. Furthermore, considering 1. the communications strength the party has, and 2. the utter trust the Shiite community has in the party, Hezbollah can easily spin this choice.

The real challenge is going to be with the anti-Hezbollah camp. How to re-mobilize the street if the STL issue is "deflated". Time for an urgent meeting between Hariri, Geagea and Gemayel!

LBC : Christian mirror

2011-11-27T04:07:00.001-08:00

I finally got to see yesterday the LBC report on Myriam Al Achkar's assassination. For those not following Lebanese news, Myriam was killed by a Syrian worker while going to a Church called "path to heaven". The killing has outraged the Christian community and generated a series of anti-Syrian comments: Myriam was a pious Christian

The Lebanese blogosphere is up and raging against this "racist" and "xenophobic" report:
view Beirut Report or BeirutSpring's accounts.

Even though I agree with all those criticizing LBC's report as completely unprofessional, it is interesting to note that this report really reflects the mood of a majority of Lebanese Christians in general. Marcel Ghanem (the show host where the report was aired) and Philippe Abou Zeid (the senior reporter) are both Christians living in the heartland of Christians, and usually capture very well the mood of the community:

Most were enraged by the fact that reports indicated that the Syrian killer (he has confessed) worked for the notorious Syrian moukhabarat (secret service) believed to have killed many Lebanese over the last 30 years. As trouble brews in Syria itself, a large number of Christian Lebanese are deep down looking at the cross border event with a sens of revenge (it is their turn, finally. Though they are also afraid for the future of Syrian Christians). The calls for revenge in the report are really an expression of 30 years of frustrations.
Because Christians are afraid for their future in the region, the community has become oversensitive. Any non political event even if remotely linked to Christianity, becomes a community trauma, and is perceived as a "proof" of the fragility of the community.
Lebanese Christians - in a self defense reaction - are becoming more and more in3ziliyin (separatists) and perceive any foreigner (to the community) as a potential aggressor.

LBC's report - though biased and racist- has therefore at least one big merit: it is a mirror to how the Christian heartland is evolving.

Somehow it reminds me of 1975....

Aoun and Syria: joker please!

2011-11-26T10:09:00.000-08:00

If you follow the semantic change in Michel Aoun's stances in Syria in the last 2 weeks, you will realize there is an attempt to reposition his extreme pro-Assad position into that of a philosopher watching and saddened by the events.

Aoun seems to have understood now that whatever the outcome of the events in Syria, Assad is bound to come out at minima as weakened. In his own savvy knowledge of the way Lebanese Christians think, Aoun has understood that positioning himself as an advisor to Syrians "I understand your fears and please don't fight" can help him stop his dwindling Support amongst Christians.

Aoun is actually playing on:

1. Christians fears of what will come next after Assad

2. fear of a civil war (spill over) in Lebanon

3. Trying to portray himself as a knowledgable, experienced and responsible politician

...All while trying to hedge his bets: continue supporting Assad but send mix messages.

So expect in the next few weeks: press conferences supporting Assad and insulting others, but also media press releases advising peaceful solutions in Syria and hinting at the need for reforms.

STL & why it is still relevant

2011-11-25T02:13:00.001-08:00

Just read Elias Muhanna (aka Qifa Nabki)'s feature in the NY Times "Just another day in Lebanon".

Quite interesting, Elias makes a point that Lebanon's future is at best uncertain, and wonders about the future of the STL (Special Tribunal for Lebanon)

Though I agree with him, I wonder why the pessimistic tone around the STL's role and influence. I think it is playing a much more important role in Lebanon's current political crisis than it shows:

It is still used as a rallying cause for various M14 leaders
It is used by Walid Jumblatt as a justification for his political re positioning (caused by Syria's troubles)
It is (if well utilized) a negotiation tool in the post Assad redrawing of Lebanon's influences
On the long term it acts as a continuous looming threat over Hezbollah and Syria's Assad (never know when it can be fully utilized)
When there is nothing else to discuss, it serves as a back up for journalists!

My main problem with the STL is the "communications obsessed" way Mustakbal leaders use it. They are the main reason behind diluting its perceived importance among the public opinion. Overuse it, you'll kill it.

Part of the communication's success of the STL (in my opinion) is to keep a shroud of mystery around it. Hezbollah works hard to destroy that...By over communicating, Mustakbal leadersare doing a better job!

Jumblatt and the absurdities

2011-11-24T22:22:00.000-08:00

Jumblatt slammed today the "absurdities" of Lebanese politics.

I like Jumblatt as a person: funny, educated and an analytic mind. But flip flop Jumblatt criticizing the absurdities of Lebanese politics ??!?! common! this must be the most absurd statement of the day.

That said, if you google "walid jumblatt" + absurd, you'll find 21,800 references. It seems he likes the word a lot.

Syria: Scenarios and Civil War

2011-11-24T08:51:00.000-08:00

article I originally posted in March 2011 in http://www.arabdemocracy.com/search/label/Jihad%20Bitar

(check out arabdemocracy.com, really great analysis site)

“Protests in Daraa-Syria”; When I read this ticker in my favorite news channel, I can’t honestly say I did not feel goose bumps. As a Lebanese, anything that happens in Syria directly affects my country and probably the entire geopolitical (dis)equilibrium that has characterised the Middle East since the last Israeli-Arab wars of 1973.

Four days after the Daraa spark, I counted twelve cities where unrest was happening. Busy with the very rare YouTube videos and the inevitable contradictory death toll, news channels forgot to analyze the essential question: what next for Syria, and what about the impact on the region.

Syria is not Egypt and even less Tunisia. In these two North African countries, the revolts featured distinctive social demands: jobs, a future and freedom. In Syria, these three basic demands are complicated by an extra sectarian flavor. Syria’s 75% Sunni population is ruled by Bashar Al-Assad’s Alawites who make 10% of the population.

Social demands mixed with sectarian unrest ia a usual recipe for disaster: a special kind of one, civil war.

Daraa is an interesting city for the start of the revolution. It is close to Damascus, and its population is a mix of Sunni, Alawites and Druze. As anyone who has ever lived through civil war would tell you, trouble always starts within mixed areas which act as point of frictions: living side by side with the 'other' ferments jealousy, anger and hatred. Daraa exploded, Aleppo and Lattaquia followed; two other highly mixed cities. The Sunni citizens of these towns are usually more religious, and have more reasons to imitate their Egyptian and Tunisian Sunni “brothers”.

The first reaction of the regime has been to bring down to the streets the pro-Assad protesters, and contrary to Egypt’s Moubarak or Tunisia’s Ben Ali, the Syrian regime does have real supporters: the Assad’s own Alawites, but also most of Syria’s Christians and Shiite minorities. The Druze community- well advised by their cousins in Israel and Lebanon- will probably wait to see how things turn before taking a stand.

I remember long talks with my Syrian friends, telling me how many of the Alawites from Lattaquia for example, were armed by the regime, and how the roads between Sunni dominated cities and others were on purpose never fully operational: call it “trouble insurance”, but the regime has always been prepared for when that “Sunni” pride day would come. The regime and its supporters are very aware that a “simple” change of power will not – and cannot- happen peacefully. The only way out is probably war, civil war.

While that civil war scenario is – in my opinion – the most likely, three others exist.

In the first, and as the protests gain momentum, the Alawites tribal heads could decide to drop the Al-Assad family. Fearing for the future, these traditional leaders – who also lost part of their power at the hands of the ruling family- might conclude that joining the protest momentum is the best way to “protect” the community. The Christians and hesitant Druze groups would then be forced to do the same. The domino effect would then be terminal for the current regime.

In the second, the Syrian regime analyzes that most foreign countries have no interest in seeing the regime fall, and cracks down on the protest the hard way, the Hama way. In 1982, Bachar Al-Assad’s father had ended a similar revolt by killing an estimated 5,000 people. Most countries remained silent, as Syria’s stability was –and still is- a guarantee for all the countries in the region. Al-Assad will then be free to break the revolt. But in 1982, there was no Facebook, Al-Jazeera or Al-Arabiya ; information is the enemy of dictatorships.

In the third, Al-Assad decides that dropping Iran and getting close to Saudi-Arabia is his best bet to “calm” Sunnite protests. While the regime will probably try this path – as early reports of last minute meetings between Saudis and Syrian leaders show – it is doubtful that it will impact or calm the protesters. The Syrians might find this path to be a dead-end.

The rest of this article analyzes the regional impact in case the civil war scenario does unfold. Part of the proof lies in an unnoticed tweet by BBC’s correspondent in Syria – Lina Sinjab – she reported that protesters had arrested Iranian and Hezbollah operatives working alongside the Syrian security forces.

Syria is Iran’s best friend in the region and the main conduct for Iranian weapons to Hezbollah. Iran can simply not afford to lose the Al-Assad regime. As the BBC Tweet showed, Iran will spend the right amount of money, effort and men to keep the Syrian regime alive. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia will not accept to sit down and watch its arch-enemy Iran take over Syria. The Saudis will probably send weapons and support to the protesters. Syria would then – ironically- become a new Lebanon (not the other way around) and fall into civil war.

If the current Syrian regime falls, one can expect the following impact on the region:

- Reconciliation between Hamas and PLO in Palestine: the changes in the region will weaken both their sponsors, and drive the Palestinian people to request more from their leaders. Both Hamas and PLO leaders might have no choice but coordinate.

- Depending on how things turn out in Syria, Iran will have to choose between either 1) negotiating with the Saudis and Americans, or 2) going full speed with a destabilization of the region: and eventually a regional war.

- Iran’s repositioning will impact Hezbollah’s choices: 1) Use its weapons to negotiate a constitutional settlement that favors it, or 2) Decide that taking over Lebanon is its best long term choice, before losing its vital Syrian weapons conduct. Lebanon’s civil war could then get re-ignited, and the country heading towards a de-facto federation.

- Saudi Arabia’s Shiite community will be pushed by Iran to stand-up to the Monarchy. Expect more trouble in the oil rich – and Shiite dominated- eastern region of Saudi Arabia.

- Israel’s best interest would be to wait and see how the events turn out. But as Lebanon’s civil war history has shown, anarchy at Israel’s borders increases the possibility of “independent” groups firing rockets at Israel. The Israeli reaction might further put pressure on the Israeli government to “act”.

In all the scenarios, the region is bound for some tough times: nothing new in the book’s cover, but all new in its content.

The blog is Back

2011-11-24T08:26:00.000-08:00

After one year of dormant blogging activities (I joined Twitter meanwhile) I am reactivating this blog!!!

at least I hope so!!

CNN Arabic revamps

2010-11-01T04:28:00.000-07:00

check out the new CNN Arabic website
www.CNNArabic.com

They changed the look and feel. It is clearly better than before!!!!

you can read their press release at:
http://www.ameinfo.com/247464.html

Last minute: Al Jazeera banned in Morocco

2010-10-31T11:27:00.001-07:00

The Moroccan communications ministry has said its has suspended the operations of the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television news channel in Rabat and withdrawn the accreditations of its staff, AFP has reported. The move followed "numerous failures in (following) the rules of serious and responsible journalism," the ministry said. The authorities took exception 'to the way Al-Jazeera handles the issues of Islamists and Western Sahara', a government official who declined to be named was quoted as saying.

Netanyahu on speaking to the Arab Media

2010-10-31T07:56:00.000-07:00

from Jerusalem Post:

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will grant an interview to the Palestinian or pan- Arab media when the message he wants to convey may actually make a difference, government sources said this week.

These comments came after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas gave an interview to Channel 1 on Sunday evening, bringing his message directly to the Israeli people.

This is the third time Abbas has brought his message into Israeli living rooms in recent months. The PA President was interviewed by Channel 2 in April, and in July, briefed print journalists. And now, this latest an interview with Channel 1.

In contrast, even though standing requests have been made to the Prime Minister’s Office by numerous Palestinian and Pan-Arabic outlets – including from networks like Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya – no decision has yet been made by Netanyahu to grant any of them an interview.

An internal discussion was held on the matter “of late,” according to one source, but the discussions haven’t yet “come to fruition.”

Netanyahu heard the Abbas interview, and during a meeting with the Likud faction the following day said, “I must say that I prefer to talk to him face-to-face. This interview took place seven minutes from here. A direct conversation can advance the resolution of the conflict.”

When Abbas wants to address the Israeli public he knows that if he interviews with one of the Israeli stations he will have a significant audience. But this is not the case if Netanyahu wants to address the Palestinians, since the Palestinian Authority television news is not widely viewed, certainly less than Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera.

The Arab media is not the only media outlet that has failed to secure an interview with Netanyahu. The prime minister has given only a few in-depth interviews to the Israeli media since taking power in March 2009. And for the first time in recent memory, this year no Rosh Hashana interview was granted.

On Sunday, Netanyahu gave a brief interview to Army Radio to mark its 60th anniversary, but mostly gave his personal reminiscences of the radio station; the PM made little mention of the weighty issues facing the country.

More Rotana in Egypt

2010-10-27T06:29:00.001-07:00

Rotana Egypt is planned to go live on January 1, and will complement Rotana's other offerings in Egypt, including Rotana Cinema and Rotana Radio

BACK IN BUSINESS!!!!!!!

2010-10-27T01:05:00.000-07:00

After a one year stop, this blog is back!

To start with my OpEd in this month's Communication mag. It's about blogs and social networks.

By Jihad Bitar
Head of Knowledge at Quantum Communications

When the editor of this fine magazine contacted me for this column, the first question she asked me was “why haven’t you been updating your blog?”. Even though the true reason was a fashionable laziness attitude in these hot summer days, I also noted that my “blog monitoring” business had gone down by 50% in the last two years, while my Facebook and Twitter listening revenues was up by 400%!

So are blogs dying? What is certain is that we are a large 190 million worldwide blog population… but a declining one. The number of blogs created has gone down significantly in the last 3 years. And of the 190 million blogs out there, only 4% (source: Technocrati) were updated in the last 4 months, indicating a slow but certain erosion. Instead of creating a blog to post ideas or comments on the neighbors, user x now prefers to open a Facebook page (much faster) and/or twit on the predicament of having noisy neighbors. Twitter and Facebook’s unique strength is unmatchable for the typical blog: they both need less content: Creating and updating content is probably one of the most annoying thing user x has ever done.

The venerable Economist magazine put it best in its June 24th 2010 issue, when it quoted a researcher - a self proclaimed “blog archeologist” – describing his research platform as a “vast field of dead blogs”. In the last year, growth of Blogger and WordPress, the world’s two leading blog hosting platforms, have stagnated , while that of Facebook surged by 66% and Twitter by 47% (source: Nielsen Research)

In our own Arab world, reliable figures are even harder to find. I estimate the number at around 500,000 (of which an estimated 50% are in English). But like all other webbers, Arabs are slowly moving away from blogs, and going to Facebook, Twiter and MySpace (and even blackberry chat). Egypt is still the main provider of blogging content (no surprise there, as Egyptians are known to be the most talkative of the Arabs), but Gulf countries are slowly catching up. Lebanon & Jordan (thanks to Maktoob’s platform) benefit from their “more liberal” cultures, and are hosts to a number of very opinionated blogs (which is how blogs should be anyhow)

If blogs can die, then they are alive. And like life, Darwin’s theory of evolution also applies to the blogosphere. It is evolving, and only those that adapt to internet changes will survive. Blogs with access to recurrent content are thriving, and who better to create content than both the corporate and political worlds. Technocrati’s top 100 blogs (by number of visits) show the strong lead corporate blogs have (number one is the hugely successful Huffington Post, a leading US political commentary site).

The blogosphere is being slowly eaten by the brand builders; they have the money and the time. Blogs are not dead, they are just getting older and more capitalistic.
The real question now is, will Facebook and Twitter follow their “old” (born in 2004! roughly 200 years in internet age) cousin’s fate? My guess is to watch out for the corporatization disease; it has no known cure!

PS:
Being Lebanese, here is a list of my favorite Lebanese Blogs:
http://beirutntsc.blogspot.com/: don’t agree with him on many issues, but very well written and entertaining
www.bloggingbeirut.com/: great pictures and videos. The king of Lebanese blogs (in number of visits)
http://mayazankoul.com/: a must see
http://www.hummusnation.net/: very ironic
www.beirutbeltway.com/: An immigrants perspective
www.michaelyoungscolumns.blogspot.com/: if you like politics
http://www.arabdemocracy.com/ : Not really Lebanese, but very interesting

Syria plans to launch a news TV channel

2009-09-21T02:20:00.001-07:00

Al-Quds al-Arabi has learnt that a serious proposal has emerged in Syria about launching an official Syrian satellite news channel, which will be part of the radio and television corporation channels that are under the direct control of the leadership in Damascus.

If things go as planned without any media or political obstacles, the expected channel might be launched within one and a half to two years. It will constitute a Syrian political window on the world with a discourse meant to be different from that of other official Syrian media institutions.

A higher committee composed of public figures from the Syrian Information Ministry and the Radio and Television Corporation has been formed to lay down the broad lines and undertake a feasibility study of the planned channel.

Dr Mumtaz al-Shaykh, director-general of the Syrian Radio and Television Corporation, stressed to Al-Quds al-Arabi that the recently created news centre, which is part of "mablicon [name as transliterated]," is intended to be the basis of the news channel that Syria wants to establish. He added that 90 per cent of the technical requirements of the launching of this channel are secured, and what remains is just linking it to one of the existing satellites.

With regard to the human resources, Dr Al-Shaykh affirmed that the staff to operate this channel will be selected and trained before it is launched. It includes technicians, editors, broadcasters and correspondents. This will be done with the help of international institutions that have great expertise in satellite television training. He emphasized that it is hoped that this channel will compete with the most outstanding existing news channels.

If the project is completed and the channel is launched, experts expect the latter to play a major role in marketing the Syrian discourse worldwide. In this connection, Syria terribly lost the media war that erupted in the wake of the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri, and its information then seemed confused and weak in the face of the cruel attacks on the part of a range of information media supporting the 14 March team, as well as the Saudi and Egyptian government media.

This prompted Syria to review its calculations regarding the media, and to prepare adequate ground for an official information service that will be much stronger in the event of future confrontations that can happen at any time.

Al-Quds al-Arabi has learned that, before launching the satellite channel in question, and even before starting preparations for its launch, there was a conviction of the need for a large political margin to be made available in choosing the substance of the news, especially that concerning the domestic political situation. Also, the fact that there exist opinions that are different from ours should be accepted, and this should be reflected in the various newscasts of the channel in question. Moreover, there should not be any waiting for higher directives to come from here or there before broadcasting a report, and, similarly, assertions by the official news agency, SANA [Syrian Arab News Agency], should not be taken for granted.

Most importantly, it should be accepted that the channel's work and discourse might not be to the liking of all the decisionmaking partisan, political and security circles in Syria. Thus, the channel should be free from the need for a consensus and the approval of these circles.

According to information received by Al-Quds al-Arabi, the construction and operational cost of the channel in question could reach 1 billion Syrian lira (22m dollars). The Syrian leadership is prepared to pay this cost, and even more, if the channel fulfils all its objectives.

Quoting official circles, some make comments to the effect that the Syrian media discourse is not keeping abreast of the political and diplomatic moves of the Syrian leadership. They affirm that, while no one knows the essential reason for this situation, everybody knows its remote causes.

Lebanese bloggers meet

2009-09-16T01:08:00.000-07:00

Thanks to RFI's (Radio France Internationale) Philippe Couve and Rue89.com Pierre Haski, a meeting was held yesterday ion Beirut with a number of Lebanese bloggers.

It was great, discussions included blogger freedom, why the number of bloggers decreased after the 2006 war etc..

Thks to RFI and everyone's contributions!

Murdoch 's move into the Arab world

2009-09-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

The Wall Street Journal reported today that Rupert Murdoch - the Australian media mogul (owner amongst other things of the Fox channels and a large number of US/UK and Australian tabloids) is negotiating with Walid Ben Talal to acquire 20% stake in Rotana Media Group (Rotana Channels + LBC Sat etc...)

Rotana is already the owner/manager of Fox Middle East (Fox Series and Fox Movies)

This come sin light of various rumors saying that Walid Ben Talal has lost a lot of money...and is in big need for fresh cash.

The interesting thing will be how Murdoch's entry into the Arab world will be perceived (his media were Georges Bush's best support...) expect some problems....

Something is changing in Saudi media

2009-08-25T02:02:00.000-07:00

Saudi Minister of Information - Mr. Khoja - is starting to put his "reformist" touch to Saudi TV - and I am not talking about religious changes - but modernizing Saudi TV.

The first step was KSA 1's partnering with major media groups such as MBC.

The second step will be corporatizing Saudi TV: Instead of it being a department within the Ministry of Information, a company (fully Government owned) will be formed to run the Saudi channels.
This should bring about modernizing the processes, the organization and why not later on introducing advertisements...(to see)

This Government owned company, is exactly what Dubai and Abu Dhabi governments have successfully done:
- Dubai Media Inc
- Abu Dhabi Media Company

I'll be watching these changes and will keep you updated.

This modernization should also be read in light of the "crackdown" the Saudi Government has done on Saudi owned - but private - channels: such as the LBC Sat case (cf: my previous posts) Is Mr. Khoja playing a great equilibrium game? (give some there, to gain somewhere else???) Whatever the case, Mr. Khoja seems to be the right man for modernizing the Saudi TV!

Saudi Men Watch too much TV

2009-08-19T02:37:00.000-07:00

Saudi males are lazy, eat too much junk food and spend too much time in front of the television, an Arab health and nutrition expert has said.

Dr Abdullah Musaiqir, head of the Arab Centre for Nutrition, warned of increasing obesity in the Gulf states, and particularly Saudi Arabia, and cited a Saudi study showing that more than 53 percent of Saudi males live a “lethargic lifestyle”.

Only 20 percent of Saudi males were described as leading a healthy lifestyle and engaging in activities that helped keep them in good physical shape, reported Saudi Gazette on Wednesday.

Twenty seven percent were described by the study as having a “partially active” lifestyle, Musaiqir told the paper.

Parents, he said, should cut down on TV watching time for both themselves and their children, and to remove television sets from dining rooms and bedrooms.

Musaiqir said the first steps towards promoting a healthier lifestyle should come with awareness programmes conducted throughout the Gulf with media involvement, and that school and university curricula should be improved to address issues of nutrition and public health.

(from http://www.arabianbusiness.com)

HD TV coming to the Arab world

2009-08-17T04:52:00.000-07:00

High Definition TV (HDTV) will soon be a reality in the Arab world.

Abu Dhabi TV announced that it will start broadcasting in the UAE its new Abu Dhabi HD channel. programs will initially feature documentaries and sports with some movies it seems.

This is a big step in the Arab media scene. But we are still along way to go for TV channels to invest in HD equipment, and for users to have access to the technology. But gotta start somewhere!!!

LBC Sat and Saudi Arabia: the sex scandal

2009-08-12T23:49:00.000-07:00

As most of the readers of this blog know by now, LBC Sat's office in Jeddah has been closed by the Saudi Ministry of Information and Culture. This happened after LBC's "Ahmar Bil Khat Al Arid" showed the "confession" of a Saudi man, recalling how he had numerous sexual encounters with many Saudi women. The witness, explained how to pick up Saudi women using Bluetooth etc...

The interesting thing is LBC Sat's reaction. Silence (what can they say, they rely on Saudi ad money and LBC Sat is partly owned by Saudi prince Walid Bin Talal),and most unexpectedly... reruns!

Indeed, LBC Sat has been rerunning a 3-4 month old interview with Saudi Minister of Information and Culture, Abdel Aziz Khoja, where he proclaims how he wants to work with private owned Satellite channels (such as LBC Sat) and how the freedom of these channels is good for Saudi Arabia.

That said, the interview itself is quite interesting. Mr. Khoja is very candid and talks openly about the media, internet, freedom, Saudi problems etc...

China's Arabic TV

2009-07-24T22:26:00.000-07:00

China's CCTV will start today (Saturday 25th July) its Arabic language broadcasting. The channel aims at "enhancing China's image in the Middle East"

This comes after CCTV's English, French and Spanish services.

Jordan and the Media Tax

2009-07-01T22:32:00.000-07:00

Jordan's government was planning to cancel a media tax on advertising revenues (currently set at 5%). The Senate Education Committee rejected this cancellation and proposed lowering the tax to 1% of ad revenues.
The Senate has now to approve this change.

LAST MINUTE: Arabiya in Iran closed

2009-06-15T23:43:00.001-07:00

LAST MINUTE:

Iranian authorities closed this morning Al Arabiya's office in Teheran. This happened as internal fighting is happening in the Iranian capital over the contested presidential elections (Ahmadinejad vs. Moussavi)

Various Arab media news

2009-06-15T08:43:00.000-07:00

Dear Blog followers,

Sorry for not updating the blog, but we have been busy preparing reports and studies on the Lebanese elections, Obama's visit and Ahmadinejad's relection.

Here is some of the "best" you missed this last period:

1) Rotana Music finally moved out of Beirut, destination...Egypt (we had announced Amman); it turns out Jordan was indeed in the short list, but Egypt was finally selected as Rotana already broadcasts some programs from there.

2) Lebanon's Al Akhbar announced that LBC's Pierre EL Daher and Walid Ben Talal had a fallout(to be followed)

3) CNN was voted the "favorite news channel" by a panel of Arab voters (from the top earners) followed by BBC, Jazeera, CNBC and then Euronews (Study by Sinofit)

4 ) The Arab Media Forum was held this year. We attended the debates in Dubai. I have to say it was quite interesting. Especially when Arabiya's Nabil El Khatib faced Jazeera's Ahmed El Sheikh and BBC Arabic team; to discus the Gaza war coverage. Debates were heated as to the content of the coverage. Unfortunately, the content experts that Comtrax Solutions is, we did not have time to provide the necessary data to show scientifically how the coverage was.

Media visibility

2009-05-19T01:44:00.000-07:00

For all of you french speakers, here are my latest media interventions in French

Small interview on France 24
Subject: MTV's reopening
http://www.france24.com/fr/20090411-murr-tv-revient-ecrans-beyrouth-medias

Interview on RFI (Radio France International)
Subjects: Electoral campaign in Lebanon
http://atelier.rfi.fr/profiles/blogs/emission-n803-campagne (I am in the middle of the recording)

Our program on MTV

2009-05-19T01:40:00.000-07:00

Dear Blog fans,

Please make sure to take a look at the program MTV Lebanon (MTV Al Lubnaniya) is producing, and for which my company (Comtrax Solutions) is the data provider.

The program is called "Bil Arkam" it runs right before the evening newscast (at 19h50 Lebanese time, 16h50 GMT) The 3 minutes program is a daily comparison of how Lebanese newscasts approached the news from the day before.

Be sure to watch it! Your comments are welcome bitar@comtraxsolutions.com

Censorship or protection ?

2009-05-16T00:35:00.000-07:00

A project presented by Senate members in the US (backed by President Obama it seems), calls for banning a certain number of Arab channels from broadcasting in the US. These channels include:
- Manar TV (Lebanon - Hezbollah)
- Al Aqsa TV (Palestine - Hamas)
- Zawrak (Iraq)
- Al Rafidain (Iraq)

I think the US forgot something called internet now exists....

MBC vs FOX

2009-04-18T00:16:00.000-07:00

In the battle between MBC Group and Fox Middle East (part of the Rotana/LBC network) MBC just scored a major deal. It acquired the rights to broadcast first the Warner Bros series for the seasons 2009-2011.

This deal will enable MBC2 (English movies) and MBC Action (Series) to continue the current edge they have over new comers Fox Series and Fox Movies.

For viewers this is a great deal, as the series will be broadcasted Free To Air.

That said, when Fox Middle East will get back the rights to the Fox Studios (currently held by MBC) the battle is bound to heat up between the two groups. A little bit of competition, can only be great for viewers.

Finally, I was watching the Simpsons yesterday on Fox Series, and I am appalled by the huge number of advertising breaks (all for teh same advertiser: Sedar curtains) Even worst, these breaks always happen in the middle of a conversation between two characters. If Fox wants to compete in the Middle East, they gonna have to work on these issues

TV Advertising

2009-04-09T04:55:00.000-07:00

A report I saw this morning on "Digital Production Middle East"'s website:

TV advertising spend in the Middle East and African (MEA) region is projected to increase 25 percent from 2008 to 2013, despite expectations the current economic downturn will extend well into 2010.

The assessment is one of the key findings of Informa Telecom’s TV International report, published Tuesday.

The projection places the MEA region ahead of all others worldwide, with revenues expected to grow from just over US$10 billion in 2008 to almost US$13 billion in 2013.

In contrast, North America is expected to suffer a contraction in TV advertising revenues of around seven percent from 2008 to 2010, before rebounding over the course of the following three years to post growth of around nine percent on 2008 levels in 2013, equating to more than $46 billion.

First comments on MTV

2009-04-08T03:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday MTV resumed broadcast with a very emotional program on how the channel was closed in 2002.

The evening was dedicated to announcing all the new programs. Well by announcing, I mean announcing "when possible" the new grid. Many of the presenters featured last night, admitted they did not know when their program will run!

That said, I think the grid is quite interesting. The channel will broadcast a series of locally made documentaries (which other Lebanese channels do not do a lot) and documentaries have proven to be (if targeting social and economic problems) to be able to capture a certain number of audiences.

The channel is clearly influenced by French TV programming, and is (in my humble opinion) trying to emulate M6's strategy in France. M6 went on air years ago to compete with TF1 (France's leading channel) and has managed with daring head to head programming to challenge TF1' supremacy (though TF1 remains number 1) TF1's equivalent in Lebanon is LBC...

...and LBC's most emblematic program is Kalam Al Nass (Thursday evenings) MTV has programed in front of it "Talk of Town" (i think that is the name) a French format, owned in the Middle East by Peri Cochin. This format (previously tried by New Tv) is a socio-political talk show with many guests. Its main feature is that is mixes humour, politics, social etc...I have seen the French version, and it was very successful. So I am eagerly waiting for this showdown.

PS: MTV's Thursday feature starts at 20h30, vs. 21h30 for Kalam Al Nass (LBC runs at 20h30 the also very successful comedy Bass Mat Watan) . MTV's program is long enough to compete with both.

Rotana leaving Beirut

2009-03-10T04:11:00.000-07:00

Rotana Music decided to leave its production facilities in Beirut-Lebanon and move to Amman-Jordan.

This big event (Beirut has been the historic base of Rotana) happens after important changes in Rotana, following the grouping of LBC Sat and Rotana's selling capacities (well actually a semi-merger, view my other posts on Rotana) Many of Rotana's most successful programs will actually be broadcasted on LBC (and probably produced in LBC's production facility in Adma-Lebanon) The rest (production wise) will move to Jordan.

The other reason is that Rotana's programs used to be produced at StudioVision's facilities. StudioVision's owners (Murr family) are reopening their own TV channel (MTV) and will also probably need a large part of the facilities.

To add spice to the issue, MTV is reportedly backed by Antoine Choueiri; Choueiri who lost the LBC media representation contract to...Rotana's RMS (Rotana Media Services) => Rotana had to leave StudioVision (MTV)'s facilities.

Radio wars

2009-02-24T07:59:00.000-08:00

In one of the rare cases in the calm world of radio stations in the Middle East, Lebanon's Sawt el Ghad, "stole" one of Voice of Lebanon (VDL or Sawt Loubnan) 's stars: Monique Bassil Zaarour.

Monique Bassila Zaarour is a very popular nutrition expert. She has published books and manages nutrition clinics)

VDL promptly replaced her by Sawssan Wazen Jabri, a very successful nutrition/business women (she owns the Nutrition Diet Center in various Arab countries)

If we consider the huge number of phone calls received by both programs, no doubt dieting is a booming business in Lebanon!

SMS messaging on TV

2009-02-23T06:27:00.000-08:00

Last week Egypt based Melody Hits decided to stop broadcasting the sms (text) messages sent by its viewers (on the bottom of the screen)

The channel announced that it was responding to demands by viewers. Interestingly, Melody relies (besides the cash creator music management business) on advertising revenues. The channel probably decided that sms revenues were too low; by scraping them out, it can now sell this "clean screen" to advertisers. Rotana (its main competitor) gained LBC Sat in its advertising portfolio, Melody (whose advertising is managed by Antoine Choueiri, who also used to represent LBC) needs to respond to its competitor's improved sale capacity. If competing with Rotana, means stopping on-screen sms, then be it!

New licences in Kuwait

2009-02-12T08:45:00.000-08:00

The Kuwaiti ministry of information approved 10 new licenses for daily political newspapers. Kuwait now has 28 political dailies! Out of which only 18 are actually published (15 in Arabioc and 3 in English)

The main newspapers are:
Al Balad
AnNasher
Al Akhbar
Al Kuwait
Al Zaman
Al La3eb

MTV to reopen

2009-01-15T08:27:00.000-08:00

Now that the divorce between Antoine Choueiri group and LBC Group is done, and after resolving the last political problems, our website has learned that MTV will announce next week that it will resume broadcasting.

The probable date is the 23rd of January

Morocco's Amazight channel

2009-01-12T03:28:00.000-08:00

Morocco announced that a new government owned channel will start broadcasting within the first nine months. The channel will be named the "National Amazight TV" .

The budget announced for the channel is relatively low, as Moroccoan communications minister announced that it will equal 4.5MEuros over 4 years!!!! That's probably enough to pay a dozen of employees, but shows that programming quality will be very week (a minimal yearly budget for a "respectable" channel stands at around $15M)

PS: Amazight is one of the languages of the "Berber" tribes mainly present in Morocco and Algeria.

BBC Persian

2009-01-12T03:22:00.000-08:00

After BBC Persian radio (broadcasting since 1941), BBC announced last week that it was launching a new TV channel : BBC Persian with a budget of 15 Million pounds (source: Guardian)
the channel will have 140 employees.

This BBC Persian TV comes after BBC's arabic experience, where a TV channel was successfully launched in parallel to the radio service.

ATV is back...again

2008-12-17T01:21:00.001-08:00

Jordan's first private TV group is back! ATV which initially supposed to start broadcasting two years ago, but was closed by Jordanian authorities, announced that it will resume broadcasting next spring 2009.

The group will launch three channels simultaneously (a news channel, an entertainment channel, a religious channel) under its new ownership structure (Mr. Radi Al Khass purchased 13% of teh channel from previous owner Mr. Muhammad Alyan; even though the current structure is still murky...)

Info from agencies, Al Akhbar newspaper and own sources.

the most famous shoe

2008-12-17T01:10:00.000-08:00

Lebanese channel New TV (famous for its provocative stances) announced today that it was willing to pay for the defense of Mountazar Al Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoe at Georges Bush during his latest Iraqi visit.

Tahssin Khayat -New TV's chairman- also announced that the channel was willing to recruit the Iraqi journalist if he was fired from his job at Al Baghdadiya TV channel.

The future of TV in the Arab world

2008-11-10T07:18:00.000-08:00

This is my (modest) opinion on the future of Arab TV in the Arab world.

The Arab TV landscape is rapidly changing, and within 5 years we will probably be facing the following scenario.

Two or three major media groups competing in the Free to Air (and probably entering the Pay TV) market. Currently Rotana and MBC are these two major groups.
Each will propose a number of TV channels to their viewers (general entertainment, sports, news, music etc...) thus combining advertising sales.

Three or four groups that will compete with lesser channels, but with one or two key TV programs. Media groups controlling Abu Dhabi TV and Dubai TV will be the leaders in this category.

To service these powerhouses, a concentration in production companies will probably follow. The Arab market can probably sustain 4 to 5 major groups. The financial of production companies are quite complicated, and in front of large clients (MBC vs Rotana for ex) only cash ready production houses will survice.

Media agency representatives will probably stop being the major players they are today in the TV landscape. Large groups such as MBC and Rotana will end up having their own internal media rep agencies (currently MBC is with CHoueiri group and Rotana has its inhouse Rotana Media Services) External agencies will continue to strive on the number of smaller channels and medium sized players.

Audience research (currently controlled by market leader Ipsos) will need to change. The large media groups will have mor epower than the Ipsos like companies. They might at one point decide to build their own joint research tool (or outsource it to companies such as Ipsos)
The future of the audience research will be to manage to combine out of home TV watching with in home traditional TV.

More integration is expected between Media and Telecom firms. Each might enter the market of the other (very long term) but eventually, Telecom firms are to media groups what supermarkets are to Coca Cola.

The competition continues

2008-10-23T23:54:00.000-07:00

In light of the ongoing fight for TV supremacy in the Middle East, Rotana group announced the creation of a number of new channels:
- Aghani (music, specialized in Gulf music)
- a new fox channel (after fox movies) specialized in series

On the other hand, MBC - Rotana's competitor- is also launching a new channel in 2009 - a family channel.

Now all these are Free To Air, as advertising in the Middle East is expected to keep growing....that was before the recession and the drop in the price of oil. What will happen next, is probably even more competition, as the giants of the industry will probably start "eating" the medium sized players.

The Week in the press

2008-10-06T02:57:00.001-07:00

*Tunisian pollster company : Sigma, published a survey on Tunisian TV watching during Ramadan (prime time)

Tunisian TV Channel 1 (Government TV): 46%
Hanibaal TV (Private TV): 22%
Tunisian TV Channel 2 (Government TV): 21%
Others (Arab channels): 11%

* Jordan Children channel launched its new website

*Syrian banned Al Hayat newspaper (Al Hayat is based in London, but is Saudi owned)

Various snapshots

2008-09-30T03:35:00.000-07:00

Elaph website interviewed Gabriel El Murr on the subject of the reopening of Lebanon's MTV (see related post) GM denied that the channel was financed by the Lebanese Forces (political party) and said that Qatari funds were sponsoring the channel.

The Yemeni Embassy in the UAE objected to the broadcasting of the comic series "Hayer tayyer" on Dubai TV, as various sketches made fun of yemenites living in the UAE

After calling for the murder of Mickey Mouse, cleric Mohammed Mounjed Assbah is now becoming a worldwide star. Western press has focused on this fatwa with various specialized websites and talk shows discussing this latest assault on western culture. Another Saudi cleric issued a counter Fatwa, saying that "murdering Mickey Mouse is stupid and pictures muslims as criminals and ignorant people"

Fatwa on TVs

2008-09-15T07:29:00.000-07:00

Saudi Arabia's top judiciary official has issued a religious decree saying it is permissible to kill the owners of satellite TV networks that broadcast immoral content, reported AP. Sheik Saleh al-Lihedan that satellite channels cause the 'deviance of thousands of people'. Al-Lihedan, who is chief of the kingdom's highest tribunal - the Supreme Judiciary Council- did did not specify any particular channels.

(from AME Info)

MTV's Ramadan

2008-08-25T02:09:00.000-07:00

MTV Arabia announced that it will not broadcast music video clips during the holy month of Ramadan, as it might offend its most religious viewers.

The channel will nevertheless keep its Reality TV programs on air. So from MTV's perspective video clips can be offensive but Reality TV programs are cool...funny considering that there are more fatwas issued against Real TV than against video clips...

This is by the way MTV Arabia's first Ramadan.

On Syria's Latest TV Channel

2008-08-22T07:42:00.000-07:00

"New Syria TV" started broadcasting this week....
Owned by Abdel Halim Khaddam (former Syrian Vice President, now in exile in France) the channel will broadcast on European Hotbird (probably banned by Arabsat, of which Syria is a member, and NileSat, owned by Egyptian Government)

This is the second Syrian TV channel owned by opponant sto the regime:
ANN (Arab News Network) is owned by Syria's president's fallen out uncle (Rifaat Al Assad). ANN broadcasts from London

and now New SYria TV.

It is interesting to note that both channels are owned by people who at one time where very close to teh ruling Assad family.

Al Jazeera and Samir Quntar

2008-08-08T00:19:00.000-07:00

Where is the truth?

After Israel freed Lebanese Samir Quntar (part of the Hezbollah/Israel prisoners and bodies swap), Al Jazeera's bureau in Lebanon organized a party to welcome Quntar (considered by Israel as a criminal, and by Hezbollah as a hero)

Israel responded to this by announcing that it will start imposing visa restrictions on Al Jazeera's staff, as well as it will not help the channel in getting interviews etc.. in Israel. Israel boycotting Al Jazeera!

Israeli daily Haaretz reproted today that Al Jazeera's General Manager Waddah Khanfar sent a letter to Israeli authorities, apologizing for the Quntar welcoming ceremony and pledging to take "administrative measures" against the Beirut bureau...While the Qatari channel's news director was announcing that the channel will never apologize for welcoming Quntar.

This event has to be taken in light of recent changes in the Board of Directors of Al Jazeera: the previous team, considered as anti-US was replaced by a more pro-US members; or at least more neutral directors. But the rank and file (or let's call them the officers) of Al Jazeera still stick to their percieved "pro Arab" stance, which calls for them to welcome Quntar as a hero.

This could explain why while the Board of Directors was apologizing, the rest of the team was still welcoming Quntar. That said, this dual opinion/messages should be to the liking of the Qatari Royal family; after all Qatar has managed a diplomatic expertise in being percieved as both anti and pro US!

Egyptian Broadcasting Law

2008-07-30T05:34:00.000-07:00

Arabic version
From the Al Massri Al Youm Newspaper

English version
From the arabmediasociety website

The Algerian Star Academy

2008-07-30T01:17:00.000-07:00

Algerian TV (Canal Algerie) will broadcast this Ramadan a religious version of Pan-Arab hit TV show Star Academy (broadcasted by LBC)
The reality TV show entitled "The Knights of the Quran" will feature 16 candidates that will compete for their knowledge and capacity to "tell" the Quran, while living together.
People will vote for their favorite candidates, until the last "prime" where one "Quran Knight" will be selected.

It is interesting to note that Canal Algerie used to broadcast the Lebanese Star Academy (which features Arabic and western dancing as well as sexy girls) but stopped airing the program because it contained "scenes that are against the culture of Islam"

Canal Algerie is owned by the Algerian government. Prime Minister (now resigned) Abed Al Aziz Belkhadem had announced in June that the government would soon launch an Islamic religious channel.

Iran's Al Alam in trouble

2008-07-21T23:09:00.000-07:00

Egyptian police raided yesterday Iran's Arabic television's ( Al Alam TV ) offices in Cairo.
The channel (and its Egyptian news editor) is accused by Egyptian police of unlicensed broadcasting, and of helping to produce the "Execution of a Pharaoh" series.

The latter is an Iranian produced series, that reviews the assassination of Egypt's former president Anwar Sadat: the murderers are considered martyrs and the Egyptian president is described as a traitor (for having signed a peace agreement with Israel)

The series strained further more the already very tense relations between Iran and Egypt.

is MTV back ?

2008-07-21T07:05:00.000-07:00

Al Akhbar newspaper reported today that MTV (Murr TV, not Music TV) once Lebanon's most hype TV channel, might start broadcasting again...

MTV's story in a glance

Founded by Lebanese politician Gabriel El Murr, and headed by son Michel El Murr, MTV was created to offer a "free alternative" in a very controlled Lebanese media scene (Syria was occupying Lebanon in 2000)

MTV opposed the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, and was a mouthpiece for Gabriel El Murr's political ambitions (Mr. Murr was a staunch anti-Syrian politician)

On September 2nd, 2002, the Syrians decided to close the channel (by force)
MTV tried to get back on air in September 2006 (after Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon in 2005), but lack of sufficient funds (after the 2006 summer war) prevented its reopening.

Future Prospects

MTV is reopening in order to offer anti Syrian Christians a media outlet (their main competitor - Gnl Michel Aoun - owns Orange TV) for the upcoming 2009 legislative elections.
Problem: Murr's main financial backer - Prince Walid Ben Talal- is already the "real" owner of Lebanon's leading Tv channel LBC

and LBC is itself engaged in a lawsuit againt the main anti-Syrian Christian party: the Lebanese Forces...(if you couldn't follow: it's a mess!!!)

What is sure is that the Lebanese advertising market cannot sustain more TV channels (7, for a market that can probably support only 2 channels) MTV will therefore need political/financial backers...which means; you can kiss independence goodbye!

BUT, the Murr family is also the owner of Studiovision...one of the Arab world's largest production facility. The family knows the media business very well, and have proven before that they can attract very creative talent. Will MTV become another OTV ? (much expected, little delivered...) or a new LBC (shake a sleepy market)

to be continued...

414 Arab Satellite TV Channels

2008-07-11T07:30:00.000-07:00

The Arab Broadcasting Union announced last week that there was 414 Arab satellite TV Channels, of which:

63 Governmental channels
126 Generalists
76 Music channels
53 "drama" channels
45 Sports channels
25 Business economy channels
21 news channels
21 children channels
15 cultural channels
6 religious channels
3 tourism channels

5-11th July in the Press

2008-07-11T06:09:00.000-07:00

- Wissam Hanna joined Future TV in Alam Al Sabah program (Hayat, 5th July 2008)
- Nadine Malah joined Rotana to present Sayidati program (Al Seyassa, 8th July 2008)
- KSA 1 announced its Ramadan 2008 Tv programs (Okaz, 9th July 2008):

SERIES: Aasa Ma Char, Ya Nas Ya howa, Said oua Saida, Ghaltat Nawf, Ibn Kazman
GAMES: a new game presented by Rachad Fkaiha
COOKING: cooking program presented by Dana Nassif and Dana Hamdan

-Rotana Khalijiya and Dream Tv will air the Asmahan series instead of MBC1, after a fight between the production company and the director
- Arabsat launched its Badr 6 satellite (Safir, 10th July 2008)

+ various news and denials on Walid Ben talal acquiring - or not- 85% of LBC Sat

This Week in the Press

2008-06-23T01:00:00.000-07:00

Press Review of Media Issues:

1) Arab journalists are protesting in Berlin over the closure of the Arab feed of a local radio (As Safir, 16 June)

2) Arab director Ines Al Doughaidi will soon start her own TV channel: Al Jarika (the courageous or the the one that dares) (Achark, 16 June)

3) French public channels (France and France 3) will soon go on strike, over president Sarkozy's decision to stop advertisments on public channels (Al Hayat, 16 June)

4) 10 journalists from Egypt's Al Hayat Space Channel are threatening to start a hunger strike, because of their lay off from teh channel, and replacement by 10 journalists from Egypt's daily, Al Massri Al Youm (Al raya, 15 June)

5) Fassel Al Badrani - correspondant of Al Arab Al Youm newspaper in Iraq - was honored by the Iraqi journalist association for his work (Al Arab Al Youm, 17 June)

6) Ajyal radio (Generations radio) was ranked first with 38% share in the Palestinian territories, within the 16-25 years old demography (As Safir, 18 June)

7) Zoghby International polling reported that a new survey amongst 7054 news directors, has shown that 44% believe that within the next 10 years, most peopel will get their news from the internet (Ashark Al Awssat, 19 June)

8) Madar Research has reported that the 2007 internet spending in teh ARab world reached a low 20M$ in 2007. This figure is expected to grow to by 600% within 3 years (Ashark Al Awssat, 19 June)

Euro (Arabic) news

2008-06-17T07:46:00.000-07:00

Euronews - the European consortium providing news in 7 languages, will be launching on the 12th of July an Arabic feed!

after France 24, Russia Today, DW, BBC Arabic (and years ago US's Al Hurra), a new news channel will be trying to fill the Arabic airwaves emptiness (?) Ok, I'm being ironic, we have so many news channels to watch here in the region, that I am starting to forget there are other things to watch on TV (except those extra short skirts on Arabic music channels)

But the real question is why one more "foreign" channel providing news to the Arab world. What are the governments backing them gaining ? I can understand BBC's Arabic venture (its a brand name easily recognizable in the region) but Arab viewers have no clue who are DW or Russia Today! and to be honest, they do not seem to care.

To be fair, Euronews' feed is probably the least costly of all its competitors (it'll probably just be rehashing of existing feeds). So it might make sense....

I guess I'll now just have to wait for CNN's Arabic broadcast (they already have the Arabic version of their website), but hey, I just remembered! CNN is private (all the others are Government owned), it just wants to make money....well, after all, maybe we won't be watching Larry King in Arabic anytime soon!!!!!!

FOX vs MBC

2008-06-12T04:28:00.000-07:00

The battle to offer viewers Free to Air (FTA) US prime movies is on!

On my left, the current leader, part of the MBC family, please welcome.........MBC2
On my right, the challenger, part of the Fox network, please stand up for.....Fox Movies

MBC2's control over the FTA US movies has now (since May 2008) a key challenger. Fox Movies is now celebrating its 1st month bday in the Middle East.

FOX pros:
The channel has access to the huge movies library owned by the Fox studios
MBC pros:
Viewers are used to tuning to MBC for their daily dose of US movies

What this battle of the movies hides, is the real mega struggle to control the Arab airwaves.
Fox Movies (Middle East) is co-owned by Rotana (Walid Ben Talal's group)...
and Rotana and MBC are two biggest media groups in the Middle East.

Rotana Holding owns all the Rotana channels (Rotana Music, Rotana Tarab, Rotana Aflam, Rotana Music) + some religious channels + LBC Sat

MBC Group owns the MBC channels (MBC1, MBC2, MBC3, MBC4) + Al-Arabiya.

These two groups are fighting for the grand advertising prizes (even though the Choueiri Group sells ads for both):
-MBC1 vs LBC Sat (respectively number 1 and number 2 general entertainment channels in the Middle East)
-MBC2 vs Fox Movies (US movies)

so my bet is that MBC is probably studying the possibility of entering Rotana's turf in terms of Arab movies...(Rotana owns the biggest Arab movies library)

I'll be watching this battle...

When Berlusconi invests

2008-06-09T00:09:00.000-07:00

London based Ashark Al Awssat reported on Thursday 5 June that Silvio Berlusconi (Italy's prime minister) is investing in the Arab media.

Berlusconi's media arm Mediaset teamed up with Tunisian businessmen (Tareq Ben Ammar, Nabil Qorawi, Ghazi Qorawi - owners of Nessma TV) The partnership aims at selling Italian content to Arab (especially North African) TV channels.
It is not clear if the deal includes Nessma TV.

What is sure is that the rush to provide and create content for Arab TV channels is still on, and Berlusconi's flair is usually quite strong when it comes to media investments.

I think Italian programs can be quite successful in the Arab world:
- culturally, Italy is quite close to North African countries and to the Levant
- physically, Italians are look alike of their Mediterranean neighbors
- Italian women "sell" always very well (no sexisms intended)
- Italians are big on entertainment and well developed games. Expect some format adaptations in the Middle East

remember the Brazilian and Mexican telenovelas ?

In the press today

2008-06-06T00:08:00.000-07:00

As Safir reported that a new satellite channel that started broadcasting on Arabsat a couple of days ago (YARA) is probably owned by the Lebanese Forces party* (I will verify the info)

Al Akhbar ran on page 5 a picture of a "Fath El Islam" militant captured by the Lebanese Army. The face of the militant is blurred.....On page 1 of the newspaper, the same picture, but without the blurring!

Saudi publications are talking a lot about MBC's new Turkish series...(this is the second such series MBC broadcasts, dubbed in Arabic) I've watched a couple of episodes from the first one...the girls are hot, the stories are good. this is TeleNovelas of the Middle East

*In 1985, the Lebanese Forces founded the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC). The party ran the channel from 1985 till 1994 (when Samir Geagea, head of the party was imprisoned) The channel is now owned by Saudi Walid Ben Talal. The Lebanese Forces sued LBC's current owners.

Opinions on BBC Arabic TV

2008-06-04T05:58:00.001-07:00

Included are the opinions of some Arab media experts on BBC Arabic TV

Nadim Jarrah:
http://www.arabmediasociety.org/?article=674

David Chambers' take:
http://www.metimes.com/Opinion/2008/03/10/op-ed_david_chambers_-_bbc_arabic_tv/5221/

My opinion on the issue (in an article by media specialist Habib Battah) :
http://www.menassat.com/?q=en/news-articles/3107-bbc-arabic-tv-faces-bitter-broadcasting-battlefield

NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/world/middleeast/04bbc.html

This was before the launch of the channel....since, well, my company has conducted an analysis of BBC Arabic's newscasts. I obviously can't provide you with the results, but considering that the channel is still in a "test" phase (broadcasting 12hrs per day) results are not bad at all! (more insights in later posts)

The future of TV = video games, SMS and T-shirts

2008-06-03T03:40:00.001-07:00

The future of TV = video games, SMS and T-shirts

This opinion was published in Campaign Magazine in December 2006. I thought to add it to the blog as it is still relevant!

With all the ongoing buzz around the internet, its impact on the Arab world, and how many free-to-air channels we currently have, many media experts are not foreseeing how Arab television will change in the next 10 years, and to what extent their business will be modified.

While attending a recent get-together for media executives, I was astonished by the number of people that genuinely believe the number of Arab television channels is bound to decrease. I am afraid this is probably more wishful thinking than factual analysis.

In a recent published study, we showed how the ratio of population to channels (Channels Reach) is three times larger in the Arab world than it is in Europe. All things equal (and with the free availability of cash in our region), the number of Arab channels will probably be multiplied by two or three within 10 years.

In the same study, I made the point that this growth in the number of channels will probably be driven by four elements:

Unsaturated market (channels reach);

Increase in the advertising pie;

Investment in alternative revenue model channels (SMS);

Political, social and economic changes in North Africa.

The latter impact on the market is starting to show, with MBC, LBC and Dubai TV launching "Maghrebiya" versions of their successful models.

As for the increase in the advertising pie, Antoine Choueiri was recently pointing out that he is strengthening his business with the firm belief that the advertising market will increase 10 fold within 10 years.

I would add to these elements the probable increase in the number of pay TV channels; Arabs want quality content, and pay TV has the economic model to offer such a service. The growth will come from an increase in premium Arabic channels (ie Showtime launching its own Arabic bouquet) and through the continuous delivery of the best channels from the US and the UK.

If technology issues such as adopting HDTV will definitely increase short-term operating costs, the real loss generating factor will be the necessary adoption of new processes, workflow tools and the continuous training of the different TV populations. But these will mostly impact short-term operating costs. In the longer term, these are investments that will actually smother the inevitable continuous increase in costs.

"It's all about content!" a thousand times heard, a thousand times forgotten.

Television executives that keep this in mind will always lead the pack. This is easier said than done. Content is difficult to acquire/produce, there are cost limitations, revenues that can be generated are not guaranteed, and this content must appeal to both viewers (ratings) and advertisers (programme engagement).

By investing in content research, and fine-tuning the selection process, television channels will be able to better target the different populations advertisers crave for.

M6, the number two channel in France, currently generates 30% of its revenue through its games, licensing and phone division.

Every programme is initially thought and developed with the clear prospect of generating extra revenue (sometimes more than advertising). Programmes that cannot lead to video games, board games, SMS chatting, T-shirts etc, are more often than not rejected.

We are still far from this level of pre-planning in the Arab world. But this is where Arab television channels (and free-to-air in particular) will find their next leap into the mega-revenues bracket.

This is the future of television, this is television 2.0.

Egypt's Copts get their own channel

2008-06-02T23:57:00.000-07:00

Egypt's Christian community, the Copts, started broadcasting their own TV channel one week ago: Kemi Tv

Interestingly, NileSat (Satellite provider owned by the Egyptian government) refused to include the channel in its bouquet. Kemi is now broadcasting form Sweden (of all places) in collaboration with the Syrianic TV (another Christian community in the Middle East) Suryoyo Sat.

The channel is financed by Mr. Adli Abadir, an Egyptian businessman, head of the "Coptic Union"; and is supported by the "US-Coptic Association" headed by Mr. Kamil Habib

On the problems between the Copts and the Muslims in Egypt, check Arab Democracy's post on the subject.

On Lebanon's Orange TV (OTV)

2008-06-02T09:27:00.000-07:00

I am always amazed at how most Lebanese channels have absolutely no sense of any political neutrality. One good example is Lebanon's newest channel : Orange TV (OTV)*
When it started broadcasting 1 year ago, the channel's GM** promised an "objective channel, opened to all", and his news director went as far as to promise "the most objective channel in the universe!"
Result: 75%**** of its guests are from the FPM's allies (March 8th alliance) and more than 30% are leaders from the FPM!!

OTV really missed an opportunity to truly bring something different to Lebanon's news environment.

*Orange TV is the newest Lebanese TV channel (1 year old) The channel is unofficially owned by the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) led by Gnl Michel Aoun, officially it is owned by 1000s of individual shareholders
**Roy El Hachem, son in law of Michel Aoun
***Jean Aziz
****Comtrax Solutions Data April 2008