The main sources of revenue in our industry have changed,” says Maya Chams, a top executive with Rotana, the Arab music recording giant and six-channel television network.
In recent months, religious broadcasting has become one the fastest growing programming segments in the Arab World. And it appears that the battle for hearts and minds is only heating up.
Mouafac Harb is Executive Vice President of the US-funded Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc., which operates the Alhurra Television and Radio Sawa.
"We are going to speak to Samar Sbeih's husband, Rasmi, a detainee at An-Naqab prison," the producer told me. Samar is the pregnant Palestinian prisoner who had her baby while in detention and had to undergo a Caesarian with her hands and legs in shackles.
Naji Habib has just finished a late afternoon round at Beirut Hall, Future TV’s 12,000 square-meter production facility and home of the station’s flagship program, SuperStar. “When I walk around here, I want it to be even better organized than my own home,” he says with a smile of satisfaction.
In December, broadcast systems specialists Presteigne Broadcast Hire provides high definition (HD) broadcast facilities for the 2005 West Asian Games in Doha.
The Middle East Broadcasters’ Awards, the first of their kind in the Arab World, were launched on May 15 in a press conference attended by media representatives and over 200 broadcast professionals.
The recent privatization of Kuwait's media sector has led to an expansion and development of the domestic media industry, namely the opening up of the country’s first private TV station in 2004.
Adnan Awamleh, the general manager of a Jordan-based television production company, still can't shake off his disbelief at a lawsuit filed against his firm recently by a major broadcaster for breach of contract.
