The Channel | 2002 | September

10 / 28

10 | the channel
Dubai
a haven for international broadcasters?
estrictive practices and
inadequate infrastructure have
for long prevented the
broadcast industry in the
Middle East from realising its true
potential. The absence of a free, pro-
competitive environment and
unavailability of support services have
discouraged international broadcasters
from tapping the vast opportunities in this
market.
Recent developments have however,
created a new momentum for growth in
the region’s broadcast sector. One of the
most important among these has been the
establishment of Dubai Media City, a
commercial hub for media industries
located in a tax-free zone in Dubai, the
United Arab Emirates.
The establishment of Dubai Media City
was part of the efforts of Dubai, the
region’s pre-eminent business centre, to
diversify its economy and minimise its
dependence on oil. It was looking to
develop clean industries that could add
value to its economy and secure its long-
term growth. The media industry was one
of the prime candidates.
Dubai Media City, which opened in
January 2001, had the vision of creating
an infrastructure, environment and attitude
that would enable media focused
enterprises to operate locally, regionally
and globally with significant competitive
advantages. Within a year and a half since
its opening, Dubai Media City has
developed into a bustling cluster of 400
media companies. Several global media
giants are here: CNN, Reuters, Sony
Broadcast & Professional, Bertelsmann
and CNBC, to name a few, and so are
regional majors like the largest pan-Arab
broadcaster, Middle East Broadcasting
Corporation (MBC) and leading Arab
publishing house Saudi Research and
Publishing Company (SRPC).
Broadcasting is one of the fastest growing
sectors in Dubai Media City attracting a
high volume of investments. In fact, the
City is today widely recognized as the
focal point of media activity in the region.
It has seen the establishment of new
satellite channels broadcasting niche
programming ranging from sports, to
entertainment and news to audiences in
emerging markets in the Indian
subcontinent and the Middle East.A prime
example is TEN Sports, a 24-hour sports
channel launched by Taj Sports, a new
local broadcast venture that targets the
Indian subcontinent. The company has
built a 55,000 sq ft fully digital broadcast
and production facility at Dubai Media
City.
Dubai Media City has also enabled leading
Arabic broadcasters like MBC to relocate
their headquarters closer to their target
audience. MBC previously based its
production and transmission in London,
which involved higher operating expenses
and made coordination with offices in its
target region a cumbersome process. MBC
currently occupies an entire six-floor
building in Dubai Media City, fromwhere
it beams its programmes via satellite
throughout the world and carries out most
of its production work.
Dubai Media City’s emergence as a
broadcast hub has occurred in the
backdrop of a growth in the popularity of
television in the region. Television’s
growing popularity was reinforced by the
telecast of the terrorist attacks on New
York’s World Trade Centre buildings on
September 11, 2001, which generated
considerable interest in the Middle East.
For regional audiences, it was television
that brought out the full emotional, social
and political impact of the incidents. The
live TV images of this tragedy and its
aftermath gave regional audiences more
immediacy, impact and drama than any
other medium.
Elsewhere in the region, there has been a
wave of investments to cash in on
television’s increasing popularity. Other
Middle East countries have followed
Dubai’s example to launch initiatives to
accelerate the growth of the broadcast
industry – chief among them Egypt’s
Media Production City and Jordan’s
Media City Company.
However, Dubai Media City offers a far
more stable and congenial environment for
broadcast activity and investments than
any comparable initiative in the region.
One of its chief value propositions is a
guarantee of freedom of expression.
Global news giants like CNN and CNBC
have demonstrated faith in Dubai Media
City’s promise of being “an arena for free-
thinking talent” by establishing their
regional headquarters here.
Also attracting broadcasters to Dubai
Media City is its sophisticated
communication infrastructure and a wide
spectrum of support services. The City has
its own teleport that provides a one-stop-
shop for broadcasting requirements
including uplinking, downlinking,
turnaround and various content-edit
services.
Dubai Media City’s teleport services
allowbroadcasters to leverage
International broadcasters increasingly want to be close to their
audiences but often the facilitating infrastructure is not in place.
Dubai Media City is helping to change that, for the Middle East
at least.
MBC’s building at Dubai Media City
Dubai Media City’s emergence as a broadcast
hub has occurred in the backdrop of a growth
in the popularity of television in the region