New TV channel to bring UAE heritage to the world

Good news has to be covered by somebody, says chief operating officer of Dubai Studio City's new English-language Kulture TV.

Kirit Mehta, CEO of Kulture TV, plans to correct cultural stereotypes about the Middle East.

DUBAI // A TV channel has been launched to spread the culture, customs and heritage of the UAE and other Middle East countries around the world.

Hollywood blockbusters, pop music and other forms of western culture flow constantly into the region, but little travels in the opposite direction. Kulture TV will send English-language programmes from Dubai Studio City 24 hours a day, seven days a week to redress the balance.

"I'd like to do programmes on almost everything that's happening here," said Kirit Mehta, chief executive of the company behind the venture, Cosmic Networks. "I'm into what a viewer will get in terms of culture and knowledge of the Arab world."

Mr Mehta, from Mumbai, has witnessed the UAE's rapid development over the past 10 years, first as a regular visitor and now as a resident. "The original country, the traditions, the history, the heritage are still alive, they're not destroyed, and this is what I want to project," he said.

"Take the Liwa Date Festival for example - it's a beautiful thing, the farmers are rewarded for the best crop, where else in the world do you get that?"

Mr Mehta said the focus initially would be on the UAE, but as the after-effects of the Arab Spring continued to be felt across the region more material about other countries would be broadcast.

"The channel will promote multicultural tolerance and an understanding of different cultures and what is good in all those cultures."

The company has already raised the Dh10 million it needs to launch the channel, which it hopes will go live in the US and Canada within six months once an agreement is reached with a satellite broadcaster. It will then be rolled out in India, the UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.

Programming will be commissioned from independent producers or bought in from other broadcasters. The BBC has given the channel access to its vast archive of material about the Middle East, and there will also be some dubbed content from Arabic channels.

Kulture TV will follow the template set by India's Aastha TV, which Mr Mehta set up. Aastha, whose parent company is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, has more than 200 million viewers in 160 countries.

In addition to the cultural content, the new channel will carry family viewing and presentations by motivational speakers like Deepak Chopra, Bob Proctor and Shiv Khera. The emphasis will be on positive, upbeat programmes.

Mr Mehta's daughter, Bhakti, the chief operating officer, said: "I'm sure there are good things happening in the world; I'm sure there are stories that can inspire so many people.

"If someone is doing something good the media just doesn't bother to cover it. People are not getting inspired to do something good, and I think good stories have to be covered by somebody."

There are plans for a Middle East and North Africa service that will have less emphasis on motivational speakers, but the launch of this version is some way off.

Dr Matt Duffy, an assistant professor at Zayed University's college of communication and media sciences, said: "Any opportunity to show people from different cultures what the Arab culture is like would be good and could help bridge the sizeable cultural divide between the West and the Arab countries."