The world of Arabic TV news is already highly competitive - and is about to become more so. For within the last week, it has emerged that two additional 24-hour Arabic news stations are entering this crowded market.
According to today's Financial Times, British Sky Broadcasting is in talks to broadcast a 24-hour rolling news service in Arabic, based in Abu Dhabi.
Branded under the Sky News name, the project will be part of a 50-50 owned joint venture with a local private investor, the FT said, citing people familiar with the project. The channel would launch within two years if the talks succeed, the paper added.
John Ryley, head of Sky News, told the newspaper: "This venture would build on our existing strengths as an international news provider and bring the Sky News brand to a new audience. Discussions are progressing well and we look forward to bringing a new approach to Arabic-language news."
This follows the news last week that the Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed has recruited Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi to head his new 24-hour Arabic-language news channel, which will launch in the "near future".
In a statement issued by Prince Alwaleed's company Kingdom Holding, it was claimed that the channel will be launched in partnership with the Fox Network, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp empire.
This is intriguing. Fox News is a subsidiary of News Corp, and British Sky Broadcasting is 39.1 per cent owned by Murdoch's company. Prince Alwaleed has a 7 per cent stake in News Corp, while Murdoch has a 9.09 per cent stake in Rotana, Prince Alwaleed's media company.
So given the strong links between Alwaleed and Murdoch, it is surprising that there are two Arabic news stations in the pipeline, given that the stations would presumably be competitors. (Some say, however, that Fox's involvement in Alwaleed's project may have been exaggerated.)
Because it's a crowded market out there. The two planned news channels face competition from Qatar's Al Jazeera and the Saudi-controlled Al Arabiya stations. But there are also the international Arabic news outlets France 24, Rusiya Al-Yaum and BBC Arabic to consider.
As Rob Beynon, the chief executive of DMA Media Middle East, a news and production company based in Abu Dhabi, told me last week: "This brings the number of [major] pan-Arab news channels to at least four and there could be more on the way. That's more than most other TV markets can support so we're expecting it to open the way to consolidation."
