Euromedia January/February 2018 EUROMEDIA_JAN-FEB 2018 | Page 5

PUBLISHER AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Nick Snow [email protected] MANAGING EDITOR Colin Mann [email protected] CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Chris Forrester [email protected] PUBLISHING ASSISTANT Nik Roseveare [email protected] ART EDITOR COLUMNIST Larry Gerbrandt CONTRIBUTORS David del Valle - Madrid Howard Greenfield - San Francisco Pascale Paoli-Lebailly - Paris Branislav Pekic - Rome INSIGHT ASSOCIATES ABI Research Ampere Analysis CCS Insight Decipher Media Consultants Digital TV Research Futuresource Consulting IHS Markit Parks Associates SNL Kagan Strategy Analytics SALES DIRECTOR Sanjeev Bhavnani [email protected] PUBLISHED BY Advanced Television Limited Unit N202 Vox Studios 1-45 Durham Street London SE11 5JH Tel: [phone] www.advanced-television.com PRINTED BY Micropress Printers Limited Reydon Business Park, Fountain Way, Reydon, Southwold IP18 6DH Tel: [phone] [email protected] © ADVANCED TELEVISION LIMITED 2018. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION WITHOUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED. EUROMEDIA Steve Overbury [email protected] Things are happening in the Middle East, events are on the move. As we report in this issue, in Saudi Arabia the round up of leading business figures in a corruption scandal is winding down after a series of huge financial settlements. As we go to press, it is reported the Israeli police claim they have enough evidence to charge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with corruption. He denies all charges. Meanwhile, regional super powers Saudi and Iran fight proxy wars to the great cost of the populations in those battlegrounds. And global super powers increasingly square up, picking a side in the intractable regional conflicts. The long-suffering populations fervently hope for an era of less eventfulness. It is always unwise to make any predictions about the MENA region. Who knows where it may all end? But, if there is any chance at all of the destination being stronger civic institutions, then progress towards a strong, pluralistic and independent media sector is essential. As Chris Forrester reports, progress is mixed, but the market is strong, and getting stronger, in turn strengthening local media groups. Continued international content deals and, more importantly, increased local content production, are essential to this process. Elsewhere, as usual, the story is about consolidation. All media companies operate in the shadow of FAANG and make all decisions in the context of their relationship to them – including the possibility of becoming part of one of them. Fox bids for all of Sky, then Disney bids for Fox. Vodafone and Liberty are back at the table. TDC and MTG were going to get together until a bigger bidder for TDC ruled out the deal. MTG will presumably look for another home. And so it goes on. In some ways the surprise is the FAANGs have so far limited themselves to hoovering up start-ups and mid-level morsels. Surely not long before a household media name is on their menu. ISSN 1477-8092 EUROMEDIA 5