News Broadcasting
Middle East Broadcasting to launch 24-hour news channel in mid-February
CAIRO: Satellite broadcaster Middle East Broadcasting Centre (MBC) will launch a 24-hour Arabic news channel, Al Arabiya, in mid-February with an estimated investment of US $200 million to compete with Al Jazeera, the Qatar based channel.
Arabiya’s all-news format will include sports, business, commentaries, panel discussions and hourly bulletins, with an emphasis on news of particular interest in the Arab world.
An Adage report quotes MBC officials as saying that Al Arabiya, slated to go live between 15-20 February, will have a non-sensationalist approach and should be perceived by the Western world as more balanced than Al Jazeera.
The channel is backed by MBC, Lebanon’s Hariri Group, and other investors from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Gulf states. Content will be produced by newly formed Middle East News, with a staff strength of about 400.
“People in this region are lacking a credible source of news,” said MBC operations director Assad Abu al Jadail. “Jazeera made the breakthrough [in news] but you don’t always know the agenda.”
Part of Arabiya’s long-term aim is to promote stability and democracy in the region, he said.
Ad agency executives in the Middle East are eager to see Arabiya but said MBC hasn’t told them much yet. They said MBC should do well financially because it has a powerful ad-sales operation and has developed a good reputation for fairness with its flagship MBC channel, which runs general entertainment and an hour per day of news programs.
Interest from advertisers
Jadail was quoted as saying that no major ad contracts have been signed as yet but that the network is seeing interest from advertisers. Advertisers on MBC include Procter & Gamble, Unilever’s Lipton, PepsiCo and Volkswagen.
The state department said it has no plans to run its advertising campaign promoting the US as an Arab-friendly nation on Al Arabiya.
WPP group’s JWT/TMI Beirut CEO Roy Haddads was quoted in Adage as saying that MBC should appeal to multinational and Saudi Arabian advertisers that don’t want to support Al Jazeera. “The whole objective is to counteract the sensational approach of Jazeera,” Haddads was quoted as saying.
Impact of war
One wild card is the pending war with Iraq. While observers believe a war could mean high ratings for news coverage on Al Arabiya, it’s hard to tell whether US advertisers will avoid advertising on the station in the event of war. However, multinational advertisers often have local ad offices that may continue buying ad time in the region.
MBC was founded 11 years ago by Saudi Sheikh Waleed Al Ibrahim and other Saudi investors. Michel Costandi, business development director, claimed MBC will be self-sustaining in advertising in the first 12 months, an ambitious goal say media experts.
Low ad spending in region
After three years of recession, Middle East advertising spending totals only about $1 billion, Interpublic’s TN Communications chairman Tarek Nour was quoted as saying. Among the satellite channels, MBC captures the most ads, followed by Lebanon’s Future TV and Lebanese Broadcasting Corp., then Al Jazeera. Although Al Jazeera’s owner, the Emir of Qatar, said when he started the station in 1996 that it needs to become self-supporting, advertisers have been wary.
“It’s clear they are having a problem in attracting advertising,” Arabiya’s Haddad was quoted as saying.
At Al Jazeera headquarters in Qatar, executives said they were too busy to comment, says the Adage report.
News Broadcasting
CNN-News18 to air live counting day coverage for five state election results on May 4
The channel is rolling out its biggest election coverage machinery yet for results day on 4th May
NOIDA: The votes have been cast. Now comes the reckoning. CNN-News18 is pulling out all the stops for results day on 4th May, when counting begins across five battleground states — West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry — in what promises to be one of the most closely watched electoral verdicts in recent memory.
The channel’s coverage, titled Battle for the States: The Verdict, kicks off at 7am and runs through the day across linear TV, connected television and YouTube. It is the culmination of CNN-News18’s multi-format editorial initiative, Battle for the States, which has tracked the polls from the beginning under the theme Road to Power.
At the operational heart of the coverage will be the Live Results Hub, the channel’s central command centre built to collate, verify and process real-time data flowing in from reporters stationed at counting centres across constituencies. The hub combines newsroom intelligence, analytics and on-the-ground reporting to deliver what the channel promises will be the fastest and most accurate results coverage in English news.
Leading the on-air charge will be primetime anchors Rahul Shivshankar, Anand Narasimhan, Aman Sharma, Nabila Jamal and Shivani Gupta. They will be joined by a wide panel of commentators including author Chetan Bhagat; GVL Narasimha Rao, senior leader of the BJP; Smita Prakash, editor of ANI; activist Saira Shah Halim; political analyst Sumanth C Raman; Abhijit Iyer Mitra, senior fellow at IPCS; Amitabh Tiwari, founder of VoteVibe; columnist Abhijit Majumdar; Nalin Mehta, managing editor of MoneyControl; political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla; senior journalist Subir Bhaumik; and political analyst Manojit Mandal.
Shivshankar, who serves as editorial affairs director at CNN-News18, set out the stakes plainly. “Counting day is one of the most watched events in the electoral cycle, where speed and credibility are tested in real time,” he said. “Battle for the States: The Verdict is built on that promise, combining ground reporting, sharp analysis and cutting-edge election technology to give viewers the clearest and fastest route to the verdict. On May 4, CNN-News18 will once again be the nation’s most trusted channel to witness democracy in action.”
Smriti Mehra, chief executive of English and Business News at Network18, framed the coverage in broader terms. “Elections are defining national events, and audiences turn to brands they trust in moments that matter,” she said. “CNN-News18 has consistently led from the front in every election coverage, and this special programming reflects the scale of our ambition and editorial strength.”
The channel has form here. It claims to have been India’s most preferred English news destination for election results for the past 20 years, covering everything from the 2024 general elections to the Delhi, Maharashtra, Bihar and BMC polls on the back of what it calls an “Always First, Always Right” record. Five states, one day, and a nation waiting for answers. The clock starts at 7am on 4th May.
