3rd EDITION 3rd 20 ARAB MEDIA OUTLOOK 2009 - 2013 09 20 ARAB 13 MEDIA OUTLOOK INSPIRING LOCAL CONTENT ISBN 978-9948-15-422-8 FORECASTS AND ANALYSIS OF TRADITIONAL AND DIGITAL MEDIA IN THE ARAB WORLD P.O. BOX 39333, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Tel: +971 4 361 6666, Fax: +971 4 368 8000 www.dpc.org.ae Copyright© 2010 This document is provided by Dubai Press Club and Value Partners for guidance only, and does not constitute the provision of legal advice, accounting services, investment advice or professional consulting of any kind. The information provided herein should not be used as a substitute for consultation with professional advisers. Before making any decision or taking any action, you should consult a professional advisor who has been provided with all the pertinent facts relevant to your particular situation. The information is provided “as is”, with no assurance or guarantee of completeness, accuracy or timeliness of the information, and without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of performance, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Dubai Press Club holds all copyrights to this report and no part thereof may be reproduced or replicated without prior explicit and written permission. In producing this report, Dubai Press Club was assisted by Value Partners. Requests for permission should be addressed, in writing, to Maryam bin Fahad, Executive Director, Dubai Press Club, P.O. Box 39333, Dubai, UAE (email: [email protected]). For additional information or to acquire further copies of this publication please visit www.dpc.org.ae ISBN 978-9948-15-422-8 ARAB MEDIA OUTLOOK 2009-2013 INSPIRING LOCAL CONTENT FORECASTS AND ANALYSIS OF TRADITIONAL AND DIGITAL MEDIA IN THE ARAB WORLD Production acknowledgement For Dubai Press Club Maryam Bin Fahad, Executive Director Adel Ibrahim, Senior Manager Operations Sadiq Jarrar, Communications & PR Manager Mohammad Sabra, Marketing Manager Sabah Qussous, Senior Customer Relations Executive Mohab Mazen, Assistant Events Manager Nour Aldin Al Yousuf, Senior Executive Multimedia Afra Matar, Media Relations Executive Lubna Otaibi, Media Relations Coordinator For Value Partners Santino Saguto, Managing Director MENA Region Alessandro Araimo, Global Head of Media Practice Janice Hughes, Senior Director Tabitha Elwes, Head of Broadcasting Practice Emmanuel Durou, Senior Manager Anurag Arora, Senior Consultant Leila Hamadeh, Consultant Riwa Sawaya, Consultant For Jiwin (Arabic translation) Musab Zakarya, Editorial Manager – Arabic For Impact BBDO (Report design) Spiro Malak, Account Director Paul Fayad, Creative Director 4 Forewords: Dubai Press Club 6 Foreword: Value Partners 10 Acknowledgements 11 Executive Summary 12 1 Section 1: Arab Media in a Global Context 15 1.1 Introduction 15 1.2 Print 25 1.3 TV 43 1.4 Online & Mobile 67 2 Section 2: Regional Update 81 2.1 Introduction 82 2.2 In-focus countries 83 2.3 Country-by-country update 122 CONTENTS 3 Section 3: Inspiring Local Content 159 3.1 Introduction 159 3.2 Overview of the Current Status 160 3.3 Stimulating local content in the Arab media industry 164 3.4 Conclusion: Bridging the value gap for local content 189 Methodology 191 Glossary 193 Appendix: Data Tables 194 5 MONA AL MARRI, CHAIRPERSON DUBAI PRESS CLUB The past one year and a half has been a period of unprecedented changes for the media industry in the Arab world and elsewhere. Within a short period of one year since the release of the second edition of the Arab Media Outlook, the contours of the world economy underwent transformations that shocked even the most pessimistic observers. The media could not have remained unaffected by such a cataclysmic turn of events. Even as we present you the third edition of the Outlook, we are acutely aware that the challenges before the media in our region, as well as around the world, are huge, but they are by no means insurmountable. Our research into the changing dynamics of the media in our part of the world taught us that very many new opportunities abounded alongside the challenges. Therefore, you will notice that the overall tone of the report in your hands is one of cautious optimism; we are confident that the fundamentals of the media in our region are strong enough to not only withstand the storms of the times, but also to forge ahead, learning lessons from the past and making amends for things that went wrong. Just one example suffices here to corroborate our approach of cautious optimism with regard to the immediate future of the media in the Arab world. Our study confirmed that even though the region’s print media had to go through significant structural changes in these trying times, it has weathered the storm much better than other markets, with the overall daily circulation and the number of titles continuing to rise. The new media laws that came into being in several countries have helped this growth considerably. Even print revenues in the region have proved more stable and resilient than most other markets. That these welcome facts did not stand in the way of keeping pace with the ‘digital times’ is actually very encouraging. The growth in the popularity of social media, as analyzed in detail in the report, goes to show that a healthy balance between conventional media and the digital means is already struck by FOREWORD: DUBAI PRESS CLUB DUBAI FOREWORD: 6 the Arab media consumers. When it comes to monetisation of online content, there are areas of concern, but the picture that emerges from our study is one of consistent and successful experimentation. The report has shown that various models are being tried to effectively monetise online content, with the ‘freemium’ model emerging on top. I would like to humbly submit that this third edition of the Arab Media Outlook represents a paradigm shift compared to the previous editions in terms of both the scope of coverage and depth of analysis. I am sure you will agree with me that this is not only a delightful source of a wealth of data and information, but also a reliable reference on all aspects of the media industry in our region. We hope this report will trigger new studies and researches into the dynamics of the media in our region. Sincerely yours, MONA AL MARRI, CHAIRPERSON DUBAI PRESS CLUB 7 MARYAM BIN FAHAD Dubai Press Club is pleased to present the third edition of the Arab Media EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Outlook 2009-2013. Arab Media Outlook is one of the pioneering media DUBAI PRESS CLUB development initiatives of Dubai Press Club along with Arab Media Forum and Arab Journalism Award. The objective behind the report is to not only bring out an assessment of the media scene in the region in its entirety, but also to help build a knowledge base on the media for the benefit of industry stakeholders, policy makers, media scholars, students and the general public. The report this year is far more exhaustive in its scope and reach than the previous editions and is backed for the first time, by extensive market research in four significant media markets in the region, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Lebanon on shifting media consumption habits. We have expanded the coverage of the report to include 15 Arab countries, namely, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Sudan, Tunisia, the UAE and the Yemen. The last edition of the report came out soon after the onset of the global financial crisis, leaving out little scope for incorporating a detailed analysis of its impact on the media industry. We have tried to more than compensate for that in the present edition, providing a much more focused assessment of the media industry against the backdrop of the financial meltdown. The impact of the crisis, needless to say, varies from country to country, depending on the extent to which each market is exposed to global markets. The country-wise assessment given in the report takes into account the specificities of each market covered. Our knowledge partner Value Partners, a leading global management consultancy firm with strong experience in telecom and media, and the staff at Dubai Press Club have worked together to make the report as comprehensive and accurate as possible. In addition to relying on primary and secondary research on the subject, we have also interviewed representatives of over 125 media organizations from the countries covered. The report has been particularly enriched through the incorporation of interview findings that played an important role in getting direct industry feedback. I must also commend The Nielsen Company, a global marketing research firm, for the successful and FOREWORD: DUBAI PRESS CLUB DUBAI FOREWORD: timely completion of the market research, the results of which add immense value to this edition of the report. 8 At the very outset, let me share the good news that a majority of media stakeholders that we interviewed across the 15 countries covered in the report thought future prospects for the media in the region were positive in spite of the impact of the economic downturn. We also noticed a growing preference for local Arabic content in countries that produce local content such as Egypt and Lebanon, indicating further maturation of the media industry and media consumers away from generalized regional or global media content. You will notice the structure of the report has changed considerably from the two previous editions. While the first section offers an extensive overview of the media market in the region across the different platforms, print, TV and online, in relation to the global scenario, the second section narrows down on each of the 15 countries covered, with special focus on the four countries where the market research was conducted.