ARAB ADVISORS GROUP Arab Advisors Group is a specialized research, analysis and consulting company focused on the communications, media and technology markets throughout the Arab World (MENA) region. Arab Advisors Group scope of services include providing primary research based analysis, market sizing forecasting, the competitive landscape, the regulatory landscape, market …

The nondescript redbrick building housing Alhurra's state-of-the-art television studios lies tucked between offices for Lockheed Martin and Boeing just outside Washington, DC. Although it boasts an arsenal far different from that of its neighbors, the location of the US-funded Arabic satellite channel, at the heart of the military industrial complex, …

Couscoussière is French for Cass-Cass, symbol of Moroccan cuisine and, perhaps more, the pride and of joy of millions of Maghribis throughout the Great Maghrib. The Cass-Cass is necessary to cook the "authentic" thrice-steamed Moroccan couscous. It is made of two parts: the lower an oval-shaped pot where meat, sauce and vegetables are …

DUBAI -- There was a big splash when MBC moved out of Battersea several years ago and took up quarters in its elegant lagoon-side section of the Media City complex here (see New MBC: The Marriage of Elegant Professionalism and Emirati Glitter, TBS 9). The move was followed by another stir …

Female preachers are proving themselves a force to be reckoned with on Arab satellite TV channels, preaching head-to-head with men in shows dedicated to religious debate. Appearing on such channels as Dream, Orbit, Iqra, ART, MBC, and Al Jazeera, these preachers often issue religious rulings (fatwas) on the air and …

DOHA -- There is no getting away from it. Al Jazeera continues to dominate the discourse, despite significantly improved competition (reflected in growing market share) from Al Arabiya and a step back over the past year from its past tendency to overly emotionalize, Fox TV-style, when framing the news. Nowhere …

In the ongoing debate about Arabic music video clips that currently engulfs the cafés and newspapers of Egypt and the rest of the Arab world, one frequently comes across critics who decry the apparent lack of diversity and meaningful messages contained in this pop culture genre. According to this argument, …

The Arab viewer is in a state of bliss. Last year ended with some well-wrapped gifts in the form of free-to-air channels, and there are serious prospects for introducing new ones this year. This paper will focus on the arrival of two new free-to-air entertainment channels, Dubai's One TV and …

Juha once remarked, as he sat on the beach and looked at the incoming waves, "There are more coming in than there are going out." Critics of Arabic music video clips may wish to ponder this wisdom and bow to the inevitable, since their efforts to stem the tide are …

Inexpensive analogue satellite TV gear introduced to the Arab world during the 1990s, and the even cheaper digital TV satellite technologies that have followed since the beginning of this decade, have been instrumental in short-circuiting a number of stages in the evolution of the TV distribution landscape in the Arab …