Baraem TV

CHANNEL: Baraem TV

COUNTRY: Qatar

LAUNCH DATE: January 16, 2009

OWNERSHIP: Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development

DISTRIBUTION: Baraem broadcasts as a free-to-air channel off Arabsat, Nilesat and Hotbird, reaching across the Middle East and Europe.

DESCRIPTION: Funded by the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development and operated by Al Jazeera Children’s Channel, Baraem is an Arabic-language preschool service, targeted at kids aged 3 to 6.

SENIOR MANAGEMENT
Executive General Manager, Al Jazeera Children’s Channel: Mahmoud Bouneb

PROGRAMMING STRATEGY: For almost four years, Al Jazeera Children’s Channel (JCC) has been serving Arabic-language kids with a host of edutainment fare, the majority of it produced in house. Seeing a gap in the market, JCC expanded its activities this year with the rollout of Baraem, the first dedicated preschool channel for the Arab world. "The lack of a free-to-view pan-Arabic preschool channel has been evident for so long," says Mahmoud Bouneb, who heads up both JCC and Baraem. "With the absence of age-appropriate Arabic preschool programs specifically designed to preschoolers aged 3 to 6, the need for Baraem was imminent."

To get the programming mix right, Bouneb says that JCC conducted research for two years before launching Baraem, working with producers, academics and psychiatrists. "Baraem promotes programs embedded with fun, trusted and rewarding television content," Bouneb says.

About 85 percent of Baraem’s schedule is acquired, Bouneb says, "cautiously selected from international production houses matching the channel’s editorial policy and broadcast guidelines." Acquisitions include BBC Worldwide’s Charlie and Lola, National Geographic Television International’s Mama Mirabelle and DECODE Enterprises’ Animal Mechanicals.

The remaining 15 percent of the grid is rounded out by original productions, such as the 200×3-minute Nan and Lili and the 52×15-minute Al Maaa.

"A typical Baraem day starts with an active tone celebrating the sun rise," says Bouneb on the channel’s 17-hour scheduling strategy. "The level of mental and physical actions increases mid-morning to fit the kids’ energy boost. In the early afternoon the young viewers are offered rich and diverse educational content introducing them to Arabic letters, numbers, colors, shapes, etc. The channel’s rhythm slows down as bed time approaches in an attempt to help mothers prepare their youngsters to sleep."

Bouneb stresses that Baraem, like JCC, is a "public mission edutainment channel…independent of advertising income, [which] gives the institution total charge of its editorial and broadcast mission and quality production. The proposition of Baraem and Al Jazeera Children’s Channel stems from the full vision of Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned, the chairperson of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, and marks her clear commitment to achieve a conscientious media environment for the Arab youth and child."

WHAT’S NEW: A relatively new brand in the market, Baraem is building recognition by emphasizing the values of its content. "The channel builds its brand around proper television content protecting young viewers from improper content undermining the established moral, family and social ethics of the Arab child," Bouneb says. "We provide new experience to the child’s development skills through novelty and high-quality production. The channel has the viewer at its best interest and at the heart of everything it does…Baraem not only stimulates creativity and cultural excellence around the child but the whole Arab family."

Alongside the television channel, Baraem operates an interactive website, which, Bouneb says, is "aimed at providing mothers and nurseries with novelty ideas, cognitive children’s games, educational tools and activities; sufficient to prepare preschoolers ready for school with age-appropriate knowledge of Arabic writing and language."

WEBSITE: baraem.tv