Something is changing in Saudi media

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!

5-11th July in the Press

- 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