A number of television news stations have launched since the Arab Spring but few are run on purely commercial terms.
The new Sky News Arabia based in Abu Dhabi claims objectivity in its reporting and purports to eschew bias.
Others that have sprung up since the revolutions last year, such as Syria Alshaab and Libya TV, are unashamed about their political alliances.
The launch of such channels is more about politics than selling advertising, according Ali Ajouz, a media consultant based in the UAE.
"News never really generated money, so that really is a political decision," he says.
Mr Ajouz points out that there are "too many" satellite television channels in the Arab world, with more than 700 at the last count, including news, sports and general interest stations.
Despite this, the Arab Spring fuelled a surge of additional stations.
"The main reason that these new channels are springing up is that the legacy channels were government-run," says Mr Ajouz. "Credibility dropped and people no longer trust them."
Nick Grande, the managing director of ChannelSculptor, a television consultancy in Dubai, says the changing political agenda has been crucial to the emergence of these new TV-news stations.
"They get funded, as far as I can see, through support from a political perspective," says Mr Grande.
"I don't think of these channels as commercial entities.
"Advertisers tend to be more interested in news channels that achieve maximum viewership," he says.
