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While Arabic-language television content once again proved it’s popularity during Ramadan, questions remain as to how best leverage the popularity of the genre with viewers throughout the remainder of the year.
Last month saw the end of the Holy Month of Ramadan. Traditionally, for the broadcast industry, this represents a period of peak audiences, prime advertising yields and domination of the coffee break conversation.
Given the breakdown of viewing patterns in the other 11 months of the year and the domination of Western and Bollywood movies at the cinemas all year round, you could forgive a casual observer for thinking that the driver of these bumper audiences night after night is the big-budget Hollywood series, the entire new season of Lost back-to-back perhaps.
This is by no means the case. The Syrian produced Bab al-Hara has been one of the dominant musalsals since its debut in 2006. Syria has been credited with challenging the supremacy of Egypt as the leading source of the specially produced soaps.
Regardless of where they are being produced or in which part of the MENA region they are being viewed, the entire Arabic production industry is currently skewed towards investing in and reaping rewards from the musalsals.
This imbalance may not be entirely healthy with FTA networks and the supporting production houses relying so heavily on one season.
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Last month, the Abu-Dhabi based twofour54 operation opened its production and post production facilities, twofour54 intaj. The addition of five high definition studios from 60m2 to 650m2 and 22 post-production suites together with all the media asset management and transmission infrastructure necessary. This is a significant increase in the standard of available production facilities. The UAE in particular has few large-scale studios available that aren’t attached to existing (potentially partisan) broadcasters.
The opportunity for independent producers and production houses is obvious and intaj could offer a viable Gulf-based alternative to some of the big studio facilities in Lebanon. The production to playout capability and the size and scale of intaj’s largest studio could also entice some Arab productions to use the local facilities. Previously, we have seen Arab productions shot as far away as Argentina or with aspects outsourced to competition in Asia.
Whether intaj will compete on price is up for debate. Users will have the option to hire crew along with the space and technology or just the equipment and facilities by themselves. The precinct’s new freelance licence will widen the pool of talent working in the region and available to staff the intaj studios when the attached crew are not required.
The end result should be to effectively raise production standards and reduce associated costs as competition develops across the region. Ultimately, the Middle East should have all the tools and personnel required to produce high quality original Arabic programming all year round. Subsequently, this content is more likely to develop a devoted audience base increasing its appeal to advertisers and levelling out the disproportionate reliance on Ramadan.
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