All change in the Middle
East?
Chris Forrester examines the prospects for Middle East
broadcasting, with particular attention to recent events
in Saudi Arabia
Y
ear after year, the broadcasting
world sees the Middle East as one
of its ‘hottest of hot’ spots, with an
TENSIONS. Perhaps fortunately, Qatar is
an investor (9.8%) in Arabsat, and its CEO
Khalid Balkheyour (speaking in November)
ever-expanding number of channels on air said: “We were also keen for Es’hailSat to be
and a growing sophistication in terms of on the 26-degrees East position. Es’hailSat
broadcasting creativity and professionalism. has its own satellite with its own content, and
However, that seemingly inevitable
progress was brought to a shuddering halt
on November 4 th 2017 when Saudi Arabia
the unfortunate political situation has not
negatively affected existing channels.”
He explained that the political tensions
authorities detained a slew of high-profile
names in Arabic broadcasting. The detentions
opened up three months of turmoil, the like of
which have never been seen in the region, or
anywhere else.
The detentions followed on from an
unprecedented diplomatic row between
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain
and fellow Gulf Cooperation Council member
Qatar. There are also constant grumbles
about comments from Qatar’s Al Jazeera’s
news channel, and even threats to its beIN
Sport operation and its content rights. At the
end of January 2018, a Cairo court ordered
Qatar, home to the 2022 FIFA World Cup
Nasser Al Khelaifi, CEO of the Qatari beIN
Media Group, to pay a fine of 400m Egyptian
pounds (€18.2m) on charges of the network’s
“involvement in monopolistic practices and
breach of Egypt’s competition protection law”.
The ruling reflected a decision by beIN
Sports to shift its all-important football
transmissions from Egypt’s Nilesat to Qatari-
owned Es’hailSat and force fans to switch
viewing to more expensive pay-TV broadcasts.
16 EUROMEDIA
hadn’t affected the broadcasters that are on
“We expect our clients to
respect the content we
agree on with intellectual
rights and copyrights.”
– Khalid Balkheyour,
Arabsat
Arabsat and there was no reason to think
they would, and it undoubtedly helps that
Es’hail and Arabsat have co-located satellites.
“We have contractual commitments with our
clients, and we respect those, while we expect
them to respect the content we agree on with
proper intellectual rights and copyrights.”