MIPCOM Preps Sessions on Mideast Media, Turkey

PARIS: The Middle East’s television industry, post the Arab Spring, will take center stage at a number of sessions at MIPCOM, as will the booming Turkish drama business.

A series of panels, led by Nabil Kazan, the president and chief executive of K & Partners TV Services, will look at the Arab TV market. “In the past 18 months we have seen the launch of some 150 new Arabic satellite television channels across Egypt, Libya, Iraq, GCC, Yemen, Sudan, Jordan and Lebanon,” Kazan said. “Eighty million Arab households are now accessing terrestrial and satellite broadcasting and we now have over 650 Arab TV channels available." Arab TV production is also up, from 81 series in 2010 to 160 series last year, and advertising rose 35 percent to $14.3 billion last year.

Turkish drama series will also be spotlighted, given their ever-increasing presence around the world, particularly on screens in the Middle East. “Turkish drama series that are dubbed for the Arab market perform exceptionally well and we’ll be looking at this phenomenon during MIPCOM,” said Laurine Garaude, the director of the television division at MIPCOM. “The Arab market is diverse, but there are strong pan-Arab consumer trends which the international community need to understand. That is why it is so important to have Arab television companies coming to discuss and develop their business in Cannes next month.”