Al-Arabiya versus Al-Jazeera

Softer news could play well with advertisers

by Susan Postlewaite

Middle East Broadcasting Centre (MBC), a Saudi-owned satellite TV network, is taking on Qatar’s Al-Jazeera with a new 24-hour news channel. MBC officials said Al Arabiyah, which went live on February 20, would take a non-sensationalist approach to Arabic-language news delivery – more balanced and less inflammatory than Al-Jazeera.

“People in this region are lacking a credible source of news,” MBC operations director Assad Abu Al Jadail said a few weeks before Al Arabiyah’s launch. “Al-Jazeera made the breakthrough [in Arabic news], but you don’t always know their agenda.”

MBC officials in Dubai said the new channel, while broadcasting in Arabic, would compete to establish credibility among all international news networks. “We need factual news that removes the anger and sensationalism,” Abu Al Jadail said.

Part of Al Arabiyah’s long-term aim is to promote stability and democracy in the region, he said.
The new channel is meant to be self-sustaining in advertising after one year – a goal the five-year-old Al-Jazeera has yet to achieve. “We have our own learning curve in the Middle East, and we know what is expected,” said Michel Costandi, business development director for MBC. “Our investors anticipate that it will be a profitable operation.”

Al Arabiyah is backed by MBC, Lebanon’s Hariri Group, and other investors from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Gulf states, with initial investments believed to total $200 million. Production is being done in Dubai by the newly formed Middle East News (MEN), with a staff of about 400, which will also handle production for MBC’s other subsidiaries and affiliates in radio and TV based in Dubai and Lebanon.

Advertising agency executives said they were curious to see Al Arabiyah on air before committing to buy airtime. But they said the channel could do well financially because of its powerful advertising sales operation, along with a reputation for fair, objective news already established by MBC’s flagship channel, which carries some news as well as entertainment programs.

Roy Haddad, CEO of J. Walter Thompson/TMI in Beirut, said that MBC should be able to attract advertising from multinationals and from Saudi Arabian companies that won’t advertise on Al-Jazeera because they don’t want to be seen as supporting its brand of news. “The whole objective is to counteract the sensational approach of Al-Jazeera,” Haddad said.

Others agreed that the market is ready. “Obviously news channels à la BBC and CNN have a potential for business. Everybody is interested in the news here and probably will be in the future,” said Joseph Ghossoub, managing partner of TEAM/Young & Rubicam in Dubai. But will he put customers on Al Arabiyah? “We’ll have to evaluate it when it’s launched,” he said.

Ramzy Abou-ezzeddine, manager at Ama/Leo Burnett in Cairo, said he had “no doubt” the new channel would do well. “It can position itself smartly against Al-Jazeera, which is seen as provocative,” Abou-ezzeddine said. “The group that sells advertising for MBC,” he added, “is extremely powerful. They’ll have enough bargaining power.

MBC’s main, entertainment-oriented channel attracts a mix of multinational advertisers, including Lipton, Ritz Carlton, Proctor & Gamble, PepsiCo, Toyota, Cherokee and Volkswagen, in addition to high-profile tourism campaigns.

Like other news channels, Al Arabiyah carries sports, business news, commentaries, panel discussions and hourly news bulletins. But the emphasis – like at Al-Jazeera – is on news of interest in the Arab world. To cover US politics, MBC’s Washington correspondent is presenting a show on Al Arabiyah called “Across the Oceans.”

The station has also lured talent away from other Arab networks, including presenters Giselle Khoury from LBC in Beirut and Montaha Al-Ramahi, who was with Al-Jazeera in Qatar. Producers from other Arab stations have also been enticed to join with promises of high salaries.

But the biggest boost for the new channel reportedly involves an internal shift, with George Kordahy, the well-known host of MBC’s “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” moving over to a current-affairs show in Dubai. The station said no decision had been made regarding who would now host the popular “Millionaire” show, which is produced in Cairo.

As more satellite TV options open up in the region, existing networks, including Al-Jazeera, are being forced to do some fine-tuning. Three years of recession have hurt the industry, and the total pool of advertising in all of the Middle East is only worth about $1 billion per year, according to Tarek Nour, chairman of TN Communications in Cairo.

Egyptian satellite network Dream TV is gaining ground in the battle for ad revenues, industry sources said. Dream started as a vehicle for owner Ahmed Bahgat to advertise his own Goldstar-brand electronics and appliances, but has started to pick up ad contracts with other Egyptian companies.

Nour said about half of all Arab advertising comes from Saudi Arabia, and 40 percent of the region’s total ad dollars go to MBC, which was started 11 years ago by Saudi sheikh Waleed Al Ibrahim. Two Lebanese channels, Future TV and Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. (LBC), come next, Nour said, followed by Al-Jazeera, Dream TV and channels based in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Other stations, including Al Mehwar in Egypt, come further behind. Ideologically driven channels like Al Manar, a Lebanese station run by Hizbullah, don’t figure into the ad pie at all, Nour added.

On January 12, MBC made a major foray into English-language TV with the start of Channel 2 – a movie, sitcom and cartoon channel aimed at young Arab viewers and foreigners living in the region.

Al-Jazeera plans to start an English-language website and has already added subtitles for some programming, the first steps toward possible English-language TV broadcasts.

Al-Jazeera signed a deal with the BBC in January to share footage.

This article previously appeared in Business Monthly magazine and is reprinted here with permission.