Jordan and the Media Tax

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

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

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

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

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 ?

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

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