(ANSAmed) - DUBAI, MAY 7 - At 8pm yesterday, Syrian
anchorwoman Rita Malouf appeared on the screen in a red suit
whose colour matched her lacquered nails and welcomed the 50
million families potentially watching her all over the Middle
East and North Africa and officially started the broadcasting of
Sky News Arabia, the new Arabic language all-news channel. The
issue of the first report marking the debut of the new channel
was the outcome of elections in France and the fall of President
Nicolas Sarkozy.
The new channel, a joint venture between Abu Dhabi-based
Media Investment Corporation (ADMIC), a private investment
company owned by Sheik Mansour bin Zayed and British Sky
Broadcasting (BskyB), is aimed, according to its Chairman,
Sultan Al Ahmad Jaber, ''to answer the need of independent,
top-level news coverage'', which is set to become ''a real icon
for objectiveness of news''. The network's Director, Nart Buran,
also stated that he is ''convinced that this is set to be a
milestone in the Arab world's journalism''.
The Abu Dhabi-based satellite TV, with more than 12
international bureaus and 400 journalists and producers, is a
direct competitor with two other giants of TV journalism in the
region: Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. Al Arabiya, owned by Saudi
MBC with headquarters in Dubai, has its stronghold in the Gulf
countries' audience, especially the UAE and Saudi Arabia, while
most of the audience of the Qatar's TV is based in Maghreb,
especially in Morocco, according to data of the latest Arab
Media Outlook.
In addition to the two historical broadcasters, Alarab,
another 24-hour all-news channel founded by Saudi prince and
tycoon Al Walid bin Talal, will start broadcasting in Bahrain by
the end of the year. On a larger scale, Sky News Arabia, which
broadcasts both by cable and by satellite, adds to the already
existing 538 free Arabic language channels available in the MENA
region. The competition (especially regarding breaking news,
which is the main method and philosophy of all-news channels)
will probably be tough. Comments by communication experts, which
appeared on newspapers this morning already, report that the
''fast and first'' (as the new channel defines itself) Sky News
Arabia is doomed to ''failure if it is to be only another news
channel without acquiring a specific identity targeted to a
specific share of audience''. (ANSAmed).
