Quest Arabiya gives local content a new channel

Chris Newbould talks to Carl von Doussa, channel manager at the soon-to-launch Quest Arabiya, about the 24/7, free-to-air Arabic channel's plans to boost local production. It will focus on adventure and survival, motoring, engineering, wildlife, history, people and places, science, crime and magic.

Carl von Doussa is in charge of programming for Quest Arabiya. Courtesy Image Nation

Regional audiences can expect a schedule full of fresh, local content when Quest Arabiya launches this year.

The 24/7, free-to-air Arabic channel will broadcast content with a special focus on adventure and survival, motoring, engineering, wildlife, history, people and places, science, crime and magic.

The man behind the project, channel manager Carl von Doussa, has more than 20 years of experience in the television industry. It includes a project in the United Kingdom to repurpose BBC Worldwide's vast archives as a number of subscription cable channels, and six years as chief operating officer of broadcasting at Abu Dhabi Media (The National's parent company). Von Doussa has been with Image Nation since last year, working on the Quest Arabiya project.

The channel is a partnership between Image Nation and Discovery Networks International, the world’s leading pay-TV broadcaster. Quest will join Discovery’s portfolio of channels in the region, including the free-to-air food channel Fatafeat and subscription channels such as Discovery and TLC, which are available regionally through OSN.

Von Doussa says of his latest project: “It’s been a fantastic journey since the middle of last year. The seed of the idea was ‘how does Abu Dhabi produce a greater volume of its own content to celebrate the achievements, culture and heritage, not just of Abu Dhabi itself, but the whole region, how the region has got to where it is today and what the future and economic development looks like.”

At the heart of Quest Arabiya’s mission is local programming, a focus von Doussa says could be a huge boost for the local production industry.

“We’ll be commissioning a lot of content, working with the independent production community in the region. One of our aims is not just to grow Image Nation, but to grow the whole independent production sector, that’s a key part of our role as part of the Media Zone Authority.”

Von Doussa wouldn’t give an exact number of hours he expects Quest Arabiya to produce each year, or specify how much would be original content, next to the Discovery archive material that Quest has at its disposal for Arabisation or translation, but he says it will be “significant”. He adds: “It’ll take time to get there – production is expensive and time consuming, but we plan to ensure that the channel is truly pan-Arab, celebrating not just the UAE, but all the key markets in the Middle East. We’ll have programming from Saudi, Egypt, and showcase the region to the region, and we’re keen to develop talent across the channel. We want to nurture faces of the show and talent on air. Partly to talk convincingly to the region and partly to impart knowledge. We’ll also be connecting with key experts from around the region to tell authentic stories.”

Von Doussa says he expects to create three main types of programming. Those include purely regional shows – magazine programmes, for example – that will be produced and broadcast on Quest Arabiya alone. Shows with a broader appeal will be produced in the region and there is the possibility that they may be picked up by the Discovery network of channels in any of the 220 countries in which it is broadcast.

Von Doussa also says he will be able to call on Discovery’s expertise when they produce these shows, to make sure they appeal to a global audience. Finally, he predicts that some ideas will be so big that Discovery itself may end up taking the lead, with Quest Arabiya co-financing and regionally screening the show, but Discovery’s specialists making sure the show is built in such a way that it can easily be repurposed into many markets and languages.

Von Doussa’s next task is to talk to local production companies. “We’ve already commissioned some small pieces and we’re working on some pitches that will be going to market shortly,” he says. “We really invite pitches from the local production community, too, and we’ll be going out to the community to tell them what our ambitions are and how they can get involved. Initially we’ll be doing this through social media, then later through face-to-face meetings and more targeted programmes and workshops.”

Von Doussa says the partnership is a win-win for both parties.

“We’re bringing together international scale and experience with local know-how and production capability. What Discovery may lack in local knowledge we bring to the table, while what we may lack in terms of launching a channel on this scale, Discovery brings. That’s a very powerful mix.”