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CV NAME Mahmoud Bouneb

DATE OF BIRTH February 1955

CAREER Mahmoud Bouneb holds a Masters degree in Literature and Civilization from Sorbonne University, France. In 1979 he embarked on a series of high profile media roles - the positions varied from Press Advisor in Iraq to Head of Communication and Press at the League of Arab States’ office in Ottawa, Canada. Mahmoud then moved to Europe where he was Editor in the International Department at the Swiss Radio and TV Corporation, then Chief Editor of Arab programmes for Dutch International Radio and TV NOS, and later Head of the Arab Service at Swiss Radio International, where he stayed for more than seven years. In the late '90s, he moved to the and became Advisor to the Chairman of the Board of Channel and President of Radio and TV Corporation. In 2003, he was appointed Executive General Manager for Al Jazeera Children’s Channel which he launched in 2005. Following on from this success, Bouneb launched Baraem TV (meaning ‘buds’), the first -to-air Arabic- speaking pre-school channel, in 2009.

MEDIA USE He reads newspapers every morning, during the day the radio is on in the background. Monitors JCC and Baraem output, plus competitors, Reuters are always on. Surfs the global newswires for latest news

FAVOURITES Likes to watch movies, read books and listen to music IN CONVERSATION | THE CHANNEL THE LIFE OF KIDS ahmoud not about politics, it's not about How do you produce/source your Bouneb, games, it's about the life of kids. We content? veteran are the For JCC we are about 60% in-house broadcaster How long has the channel been only today. We have co-productions in with over 30 going? Malaysia, Canada, Korea, the UK, years We spent two years making “children's France, the Arab world. We also buy experience of feasibility studies in the Arab world channel in content on the world market - today Minternational journalism and media, is and worldwide, and in September the world with Baraem about 2,000 hours per making headlines again. He is the man 2005 we launched Al Jazeera which has year. We are very strict regarding behind the first Pan-Arab Children's Channel (JCC). what we buy, we have a workflow 'edutainment' channel addressing an But we knew that one day we'd a talk that takes care about technical and audience between 7 and 15 years old, have to split the channel into two show editorial validation. For the pre- and also the first pre-school Arabic because targeting kids from 3 to 15 is school channel it was from day one television for children between the age difficult to achieve. So we reshuffled clear in our mind that it is about early of 3 and 6. As Executive General JCC to target kids from 7 to 15 and awareness, early learning, about Manager of Al Jazeera Children’s launched Baraem on 16 January ” shapes, colours, language, behaviour, Channel (JCC) and the Baraem pre- 2009 - it is a unique channel targeting relationship, interactivity with the school channel he has set his sights pre-schoolers in the Arab world environment. For Baraem we have high – not only regarding programme free-to-air. the ambition to reach 30% in-house quality and geographical reach but production by the end of 2010. For also from a communication point of Where is your audience? the pre-school you can find content view, making people understand what We broadcast on three satellites - worldwide. On JCC it's difficult these two channels are really about Arabsat and Nilesat cover the whole because we consume more than 800 Arab world but also parts of hours per year on this channel, so we How did JCC come about? Northern Europe and Asia, and then have to accept certain content that Everything you see here at JCC and Hotbird. In the UK we are on BSkyB doesn't fit with our strategy of Baraem and in the with JCC, Baraem hopefully entertainment and education. is inspired by Qatar's First Lady, following next year. It is essential to Sheikha Moza. Before JCC there were bring our offer not only to the Does content from a different very few productions for children, children of the Arab world but also to cultural background work in the mostly animation dubbed into all the Arab speaking kids Arabic world? Arabic, and the kids used to be throughout the world. We want to The content on the international passive viewers. So the vision of Her reach the Arab speaking community market is not made for children of the Highness was to launch the first in North America as soon as we can, western world, it is to make children 'edutainment' channel, and she was as soon as we have the content which happy. On the international market closely involved in the feasibility may feed one channel and bring a we can find challenging content, but study in the beginning. I am grateful credible offering to viewers on the we have a problem with the fiction - to her for bringing me from the news East coast of the US and in Canada. the dubbing. The dubbing kills the and current affairs worlds to the content. When you take an American world of TV for children, and we are Any audience figures? or British series and use an Arabic all grateful to her for her dedication We did a market penetration study voice for a blonde, blue-eyed young and involvement in the past five two years after our launch. We person it will not look credible. We years to make this kind of TV brought three neutral people together are doing all our dubbing into successful. – an academic from the University in classical Arabic. But we don't have a Wherever we go in the Arab world Beirut, a former BBC guy and a problem of civilization compatibility, to show our movies we win golden former ABC Australia guy – and we if I may say so, because we have our awards. We brought on board the explained to them our mandate, and validation process that determines if best TV directors who never thought they then spent six months touring this is good for us or if this is not that one day they would work for the Arab world to see where we are. good for us. And believe me, we do children, and we said to them 'We What I can say is we are among the not censor. We are the only Arab have a very low budget, we have top three covering the market - MBC3 children's channel, and the Secretary beautiful ideas, if you have better which is the children's channel of the General of the UN said the only ideas let us know, and we want you MBC Group, which is a children's channel in the world, to produce short movies, 35 minutes, channel broadcasting from Dubai, which has a talk show. We have dealt

on kids, families, different issues.' It's and JCC. with the Jihad problems, with ▼

THE CHANNEL | ISSUE 2 2009 | 15 16 naivete. Oneofour programmesis of beauty, ofchange, ofambition, This iswhywe trytobringthetouch our kidstoinherit?Idon'tthink so. front –isthistheworld thatwe want on thepolitical,socialandcultural full ofchallengesandnonsense of the Arab world isugly, it'ssad, better thanourpresent.Thepresent a futureforourchildrenwhichis is apublicmandate,we have tobuild you want topresentforchildren?'It 'What isthischannel?Whatmoredo understand thepointaboutJCC: you, inthebeginningpeopledidnot the credibilitytoouroffer. Icantell that extraeffortisgoingtobring win awards, we always have tomake media we cannotsurvive, we have to commercial approach.Without the mission it'svery differentfroma you want toinformaboutthepublic when you have apublicmissionand This isthemainchallenge.You know Baraem are outthere? How doyou tell people thatJCC and curriculum. this isavalue addedtotheir relationship withthekidstransparent tool tomaketheirlifeeasierand web platform.Ifyou cangive thema they want toseeonaweb siteora table todiscusswhatkindofcontent brought teacherstogetheraroundthe We worked withMicrosoftand it shouldbeaccessiblewhenneeded. We arenotanentertainingweb site– to makeitlooknicebutusefulalso. have todiversify ouroffer, we have here, it'sthesame.Foronline,we world, you have about85-90%of it What you seeinEuropethekids' as well? all daylong –isthathappening here In Europe kidsare onthecomputer dogma inthecontentwe produce. and we don'thave anykindofspecial to otherculturesandidentities, promoting ouridentity, we areopen we arerootedinourculture,we are public visionwithainterest, We areapublicmissionTVwith are acitizen,even ifyou cannotvote. citizen –whenyou are13or14you perspective. We addressthechildas a politics, butfromthechild's Palestine, withIsrael,theeconomy, THE CHANNEL | ISSUE 22009 | THE CHANNEL | IN CONVERSATION “ for $10m like this make TV cannot debate show hour-long Nadhra Ala,an excitement joy, funand tournament of Ad-Darb, a You ”

▼ ▼ a commercialoffer isnotsustainable. by avery commercialoffer. And even immediately anditwillbereplaced this kindofofferwillstop Without thesupportofgovernment are dealingwith,inourfinancing. its content,withthetalentsthat we conventional initsrelationship with and itshouldremainnon- JCC isnotaconventional channel, What aboutthefuture? we donotknowthem. whites –we donotlistentoour kids, the English, Americans, blacks, little we listentoourkids.The Arabs, talk withachild.It'samazinghow "Talk tome",it'sjust23minutesof WWW.BARAEM.TV WWW.JCCTV.NET Mahmoud Bouneb,thankyou. and sustainablecorporation. good TVandbecomeasuccessful stay truetoourmission,makevery like thisfor$10m.Ourambitionisto for $10m,andyou cannotmakeTV commercial channel,you willfight channels. Soifyou becomea than $60mamongeightornine satellite TVfor Arab children, isless turnover ofthecommercialmarket, channels of$115mayear. The we have abudgettodayfortwo I have togive you justtwo numbers: ■