Ad watch

Keeping TV on its toes
(cairolive.com, October 1, 2002) Are people talking about the new "Starmaker" competition -- "Samaana Sowtak" -- airing on channel 2? A recent front page ad in the papers bills the contest as "TV's biggest-ever talent-discovery program."
But making young hopeful crooners' dreams come true is not all the show purports to be.. The audience can participate as well, casting their votes and thus entering into a draw for a LE100,000 prize. There's a per minute charge, of course, yet another of those contests sucking peoples' resources dry. 
The show also looks to be similar to a whole series of talent search programs that have proliferated on TV in recent years, including one hosted by veteran entertainer Samir Sabry on the private satellite channel Dream TV. 
The government-run Channel 2 contest, which an accompanying advertorial indicates is masterminded by private sector ad mogul Tarek Nour, will take place over 12 weeks with 4 hopeful entertainers -- including one duet -- aiming to make it big.

Commentary
Phone bill phenomena
(cairolive.com, October 1, 2002) These days, news of pending phone bills inspires talk mirrored from a multitude of articles in the media (including ours -- here and here) about the grand billing shift currently going on -- from units to minutes.
Meanwhile, the latest phone bill -- October's -- has been announced in the papers. Payments are being accepted until November 10... 
The new three month cycle has many people feeling the costs of communication more frequently, perhaps inspiring some of the grumpiness about the minutes versus units issue.
Al-Akhbar's cartoonist Mustafa Hussein recently dug into his archive to prove that complaining about the phone bill is nothing new:
A September 12 back page Al-Akhbar reprints the vintage strip showing two men talking about another man who is nearby talking to himself. One is explaining to the other that -- "He's been like this from the moment the phone bill arrived. He threw away his phone, and ever since then, he's been talking to himself nonstop. And all the while he's writing up a new bill where he is computing all the excess calls he's made to himself..."

For links to these articles and much more from the world of Arabic media go to www.zahma.com!

DISPATCH
Coming soon: Secret Door, the sequel?
National Geographic's live archaeology event ended with a dud -- and a bit of controversy. Cairo Live was there.

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