The Saudi media group Rotana has signed a deal with Meditel of Morocco in its latest aggressive push to team up with regional telecommunications companies and distribute Arabic content through low-cost mobile and internet subscription plans, reports The National.

The majority of the deals were struck in Middle Eastern countries such as Iraq, Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Sudan and the UAE.

Rotana, the world’s largest Arabic media content owner, teamed up with telecom groups like Zain, Vodafone and du in creating a media “lounge”, which boasts unlimited access to Rotana artists on a mobile phone for about US$5 a month.

Yousef Mugharbil, president of Rotana Digital, spoke of the deal. The charge is made through the company’s billing system, but importantly, according to the news site, “there were no extra charges to the consumer, or revenue for the telecoms, for sending the data.”

“Rotana only makes deals with telecoms that agree not to add data charges to the price of content,” commented Mugharbil.

Although the media group enjoys multiple platforms, Rotana focuses on distributing its content through mobile phones, largely as a way to fight piracy. According to Mugharbil, illegal downloading on the internet is a “chronic problem” in the region.

While the company has taken significant efforts to curb the practice, such as threatening legal action against companies that advertise on illegal downloading sites, it prefers to address the problem in different ways, such as proposing attractive deals through the mobile services.
“We moved to the entertainment experience on the mobile for the obvious reason that it is not socially acceptable to pirate from the mobile,” Mugharbil commented.

Du currently has a number of prestigious broadcasting giants from across the Middle East and Asia among its growing list of clients, including Abu Dhabi TV, Dubai TV, Sharjah TV, MBC; Al-Arabiya News Channel; Al-Majd; Korea's Global TV, Arirang; CNBC Arabiya; MTV Arabia; NDTV; Nickleodeon TV Arabia; PMC; Prime Sports; Reuters; Showtime and Zee TV.

Despite the impact of global economic conditions, the media industry in the Middle East has remained dynamic and independent, providing a unique set of opportunities and challenges, according to Mohammad Abdullah, Executive Director of Dubai Media City, reports AME Info.

At the 5th Annual WAN-IFRA Middle East Conference and Workshop, Abdullah pointed out that media businesses specifically need to understand what makes the region's print industry so distinct in order to take advantage of the abundant growth opportunities.

In related news, Sabria S. Jawhar at The Saudi Gazette recently pointed out that Saudi Arabia seriously lags behind its Gulf neighbors in developing a sophisticated advertising and news media industry.

Dubai’s media zone is probably the best example of news, public relations and advertising companies assembled in a single cluster in the Middle East. The news site questions that while the idea of a media zone in Saudi Arabia sounds promising and is a logical step in the country’s campaign to become more progressive, Saudi Arabia may not be ready to take this big step.

“To make a media zone work, government restrictions on filming outdoors and in studio production facilities must be loosened,” suggests Jawhar. She believes that tolerance is essential in promoting Saudi actors and models to work within the country.

As she argues, “It boils down to economic growth.” If Saudi Arabia wants to project an image of a leader in business investment and science, then it must invest in a broadcast media within its own borders that conforms to our religious and cultural obligations but remain relatively free.

Jawhar concludes that young Saudis should be the ones leading pan-Arab satellite television, not Egyptians or Lebanese.