http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/ Mixed Media RSS http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/10/independent-medias-shot-across-the-pirates-bows.html For a while now the major players in mainstream media have been vociferous in their calls for tougher laws to curb the prolific practice of illegal downloads.Recently a team of senators moved to grant the US Department of Justice the... October 21, 2010 8:01 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/10/orbit-showtime-boss-quits.html The boss of Orbit Showtime Network (OSN) has quit.Marc-Antoine d'Halluin, the head of the Middle East pay-TV network, told The National he has resigned, without giving a reason for his departure.It is understood that Mr d'Halluin will remain in Dubai,... October 1, 2010 2:03 AM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/09/jamming-of-al-jazeeras-world-cup-broadcasts-traced-to-jordan.html Jordan is known as being a hub for tech-minded entrepreneurs. But it is also home to one or two saboteurs, according to allegations published this week.The mysterious jamming of Al Jazeera's World Cup broadcasts has been traced to Jordan, according... September 30, 2010 12:16 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/09/mission-possible-for-dubais-film-industry.html Tom Cruise is coming to Dubai. Or rather, the next installment of the US actor's Mission: Impossible series is set to be filmed in the emirate.As The National reported in August, location scouts from Paramount held lengthy meetings with film... September 28, 2010 5:31 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/09/sports-newspaper-to-launch-on-wednesday.html A daily newspaper targeting UAE sports fans will launch on Wednesday, according to its Abu Dhabi-based publisher. Sport 360°, an English-language daily, will cover a number of sports, with a special focus on motor racing, equestrianism, cricket and football."We're going... September 27, 2010 1:52 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/09/itv-news-to-open-bureau-in-dubai.html The British television network ITV News is to open a bureau in Dubai, according to a report in The Guardian.The new hub will be headed by John Irvine, former Washington correspondent at ITV. Irvine will cover stories across the Indian... September 1, 2010 4:27 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/08/national-geographic-magazine-to-launch-in-arabic.html National Geographic is exploring a new territory: the Arabic language.The magazine, which dates back to 1888, is launching a Middle East edition later this year, with the first issue of the monthly title expected to hit the newsstands on 1... August 2, 2010 12:04 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/07/more-closures-expected-in-kuwaits-crowded-newspaper-market.html Kuwait's daily Arabic-language newspaper Arrouiah has closed due to the lack of advertising revenue in an increasingly competitive local print market, it emerged this morning. Up to 200 staff at the newspaper face redundancy, after the investment company which... July 29, 2010 3:51 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/07/sky-news-in-talks-to-launch-arabic-tv-station-in-abu-dhabi.html The world of Arabic TV news is already highly competitive - and is about to become more so. For within the last week, it has emerged that two additional 24-hour Arabic news stations are entering this crowded market. According to today's Financial... July 14, 2010 10:03 AM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/07/abu-dhabi-media-company-signs-premier-league-deal-with-stc.html The Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC) has signed an agreement with Saudi Telecom Company (STC) for the distribution of English Premier League football games in Saudi for three consecutive seasons, starting this August. The deal will see ADMC's premium programming... July 11, 2010 4:29 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/07/recapping-the-nationals-industry-insights-forum-part-2.html July 6, 2010 7:08 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/07/live-from-the-nationals-industry-insights-forum.html Yesterday, The National hosted its first Industry Insights forum. Media leaders from around the Middle East and the world were invited to discuss the future of TV revenues.More than 450 TV stations are vying for a stake in the Middle... July 5, 2010 10:32 AM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/07/al-jazeera-english-expands-in-europe---but-can-it-crack-the-us.html (AP Photo/ Hamid Jalaudin) Al Jazeera English is now available in 20 million homes in the UK, following the launch of the news station on the country's 'Freeview' TV network. The Qatar-based channel was previously available only via Sky's pay-TV... July 1, 2010 12:17 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/06/what-is-the-future-of-tv-revenues.html The total spend on TV advertising in the Middle East amounts to US$6.5 billion a year. This sounds impressive - but when you factor in production and broadcast costs, and the fact that this spend is shared by a staggering... June 30, 2010 6:18 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/06/istani-journalists-in-uae-have-a-duty-to-condemn-extremism.html Pakistan's minister for information last night told Pakistani journalists working in the UAE that they have a 'duty' to condemn extremism, and to portray their home country in an objective light.At a reception at the Pakistan Sports and Recreation Club... June 30, 2010 3:46 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/05/world-press-day-after-the-bloodiest-month-in-five-years.html This year's World Press Freedom Day, marked on May 3 every year, bears particular pertinence after the deadliest April for journalists in five years.According to the official site supporters worldwide of media freedom "celebrate the fundamental principles of press and... May 3, 2010 1:35 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/04/media-wades-into-uk-election-campaign.html The influence of the Conservative party in Britain over large swathes of the press is well known, but the partisan reporting of the most popular newspapers in the country over the last week is unprecedented to an observer from my... April 28, 2010 3:44 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/04/admc-headquarters-revealed.html The design for ADMC's future headquarters in Mena Zayed have been revealed! Now it's time to name them. You'll remember that China's state-owned broadcaster, CCTV, went to the trouble of hiring architects to build it an iconic piece of architecture, only to to be rewarded with the nickname "the underpants". Surely we can do better. Your suggestions below, please. April 27, 2010 2:05 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/04/imagenation-film-competing-for-top-prize-in-cannes.html The Cannes Film Festival just announced its competition lineup for the Palme d'Or, and the sole American film out of the bunch is "Fair Game," a dramatization of the Valerie Plame affair starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts and produced by Participant Media and Imagenation Abu Dhabi. April 15, 2010 11:21 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/04/can-iptv-save-middle-east-television.html For those of us who spend every day thinking and reading about the Middle East media industry, the highlight of the "Davos of media" that happened in Abu Dhabi last month was not Rupert Murdoch's appearance (as we weren't allowed in the room) or even Eric Schmidt's rousing speech (though our techie little brother is jealous). No, it was Karim Sarkis, the executive director of broadcast at ADMC (disclosure: our employer), telling the world's assembled media bigwigs in pure, unvarnished language that "there is no business model for television" in the Middle East. April 15, 2010 6:45 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/04/bbc-arabic-chief-leaves-for-yahoo.html Hosam el Sokkari, the head of BBC Arabic, has left the BBC to take a job as the somewhat mysteriously titled "head of channels" at Yahoo's Middle East operations. The move comes just two weeks after the BBC announced that it would not be continuing Sokkari's brainchild, the social media-driven 710 Greenwich, after airing only five episodes of the show. But Mr Sokkari says that his departure is not tied to that decision. April 11, 2010 6:27 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/04/a-camera-or-a-gun.html "It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail." -- Abraham Maslow Last night, Wikileaks released an incredibly hard-to-watch video showing the US military killing two Reuters photographers and six other people as they walked down a Baghdad street two years ago. I won't link to it here, but its contents are described in most major news outlets this morning. April 6, 2010 2:19 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/04/gulf-companies-look-west-for-media-assets.html Gulf states have gotten a hankering for Eastern and Central European media assets lately, it seems. First, Ras al Khaimah's sovereign wealth fund, RAKIA, was said to have purchased the private Georgian broadcaster, Imedi TV, last year. (These claims were fervently and rather colourfully disputed by the head of RAKIA in a story in The National in February, but the actual ownership remains shrouded in mystery -- an increasingly weird, if not downright disturbing kind of mystery.) And now, Al Jazeera is in talks to take over the Bosnian broadcaster, Studio 99, according to Balkan Insight. April 4, 2010 7:27 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/04/city-of-life-release-date-set.html City of Life, the UAE's first homegrown feature film, will hit local theatres on Thursday, April 22. This is a landmark, as its the first time a multi-million-budget project written, directed and produced by an Emirati (Ali F Mostafa) has had a real, commercial turn on the big screen. The film was co-produced by Filmworks, the name behind bigger budget films like Syriana and The Kingdom, and will be released locally by Gulf Film. April 1, 2010 2:16 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/03/cnn-poaches-anchor-from-al-arabiya.html Rima Maktabi, best known for her kevlar-sporting war reporting on Al Arabiya, will be the new host of CNN's "Inside The Middle East". It's an interesting arrangement. She'll keep her job as the prime time news anchor on Arabic-language Al Arabiya for a few months while filming the versions of "Inside the Middle East" that will appear starting April 5, and then join CNN full time in June. March 30, 2010 8:13 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/03/the-times-and-sunday-times-to-charge-for-online-content.html So it begins, and the headline says it all. The burning question is whether or not Rupert Murdoch's solitary stance and daring move will pay off. The Times website reported today that from June, the media mogul's News International will... March 26, 2010 7:11 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/03/epl-set-top-box-provider-picked.html Abu Dhabi Media Company announced a deal yesterday with Humax, a Korean provider of set-top boxes, to handle the supply and sale of high-definition set-top boxes for the deployment of the English Premier League in the region. March 25, 2010 1:40 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/03/weinstein-this-is-the-calm-before-the-art-house-storm.html Harvey Weinstein, the co-founder of Miramax and current co-chairman of The Weinstein Company, brought an optimistic spin to the Hollywood's current obsession with so-called "big tent-pole" movies at yesterday's FT Business of Film Summit in Doha. Sure, it may seem like the film industry is devolving into increasingly cynical rehashings of remakes of sequels to last summer's blockbuster, he argued, but in fact this is creating the perfect conditions for the birth of a new wave of cerebral cinema. March 24, 2010 5:41 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/03/sex-in-the-city-sequel-set-in-abu-dhabi.html The weirdness of this is just a little bit overwhelming. "Sex in the City 2," the sequel to "Sex in the City," will feature scenes in Abu Dhabi...that are filmed in Morocco. March 24, 2010 3:19 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/mixed_media/2010/03/bpg-media-ties-up-with-wpps-maxus.html BPG Group's media planning and buying arm has tied up with Maxus, a subsidiary of the WPP media company GroupM, to create a new regional entity, BPG Maxus. The deal represents the second international tie-up for a BPG subsidiary this year, following its recent deal with WPP's marketing consultancy, Blue, to form BPG Blue. March 22, 2010 6:09 PM