Abu Dhabi's media hub 'to spur competition'

Since its inception in the capital in October 2008, twofour54 has been marching towards Abu Dhabi's economic vision of 2030 and leading from the front is its Chief Executive Officer Tony Orsten.

With local inspirations and international ambitions, Orsten is so clear about the objective and aim of his organisation's intentions that he almost spells out the demise of twofour54 in five years from now as he feels it would have achieved its purpose of launching and initiating a media industry and thereafter would have no need of its existence.

"Media industry will flourish in the emirate with major players indulging in big projects with global reach and international flavour," he said, defining the future of media in the emirate. "Once that is achieved, you don't need an organisation like twofour54, in its current form," explains Orsten, defining the future of twofour54 and the media industry in Abu Dhabi.

In an interview with Emirates Business, he outlines the route map of twofour54, and explains how it merges with the economic vision of Abu Dhabi 2030.

 In a short span of less than two years, twofour54 has managed to lure some of the industry leaders, from the region and as far as the Hollywood. How did you manage to convince these big media players to locate or relocate to Abu Dhabi?

That is easy. Our objective is to create a content-creating eco system for the industry. So we are not here to attract Fox or BBC or CNN to twofour54, but our aim is to attract what they can deliver for the industry in the region.

We are looking for partners who will contribute to our intentions of creating content for the Arab World and beyond. We are not going to finance them, we are not going to broadcast them, because we are not a broadcasting company; we are not a finance company.

But we are here to support, we are here to sustain and we are here to nurture an environment that supports all kinds of media businesses, be it small or big or even very big who can contribute to creating quality content for the Arab World.

Are the objectives purely commercial or to generate quality viewing for Arab population?

The intention is to have media companies in the region for 20 years or longer, so that people in this country will have an industry to count on, and the people in the region will have a hub to realise their ideas into reality… so that they can produce Arabic content for the Arab region and beyond. This generates commercial activities and, at the same time, creates quality content for consumers.

What did you offer to big players such as CNN and Viacom so as to convince them to set up their regional presence in Abu Dhabi?

Each one is a separate case and is handled separately. CNN, for instance, is important as it offers training for media enthusiasts in the field of news and related programming, which is a daily production and has constant deadlines. It has invested in studios to broadcast, but more importantly, it will invest in training local and regional enthusiasts, here in Abu Dhabi, and even in its head offices in Atlanta.

CNN has set up a complete broadcasting hub, with studios and broadcasting facilities – the first in the region in the past 20 years. Abu Dhabi now is part of its network of the four international hubs, with London and Hong Kong being the other regional hubs, and together they cover four time zones all over the world.

We are delighted to have them here and thankful to Turner, and in particular to CNN, for investing here in its offices and in studios. Every single penny is spent by CNN and we have no financial collaboration. However, we are its partners in training. The intention is to have CNN programmes produced locally with local talent for Arabic audience.

Viacom, in comparison, is very different. It is not setting up a channel here and is not setting up to broadcasting anything from Abu Dhabi. It has partnered with a production company to produce comedy.

Our research shows that there is a need for good quality comedy content in the Arab media, and Viacom, along with the Comedy Central, will identify, train and produce quality comedy for the region. The research also highlighted the limited availability of comedy as humour cannot be translated in most cases, and for quality comedy, there is a need for a regional involvement at every stage – writing, acting and producing.

Will the development of Abu Dhabi as a regional hub of content creator compete with the existing content creation centres in the Arab World or complement them?

Each country needs a centre of excellence for content production. Not just here in the region, but all over the world, every country must have its own production that is reflective of its culture and heritage.

Additionally, healthy competition in any industry is only good for it. When Abu Dhabi contributes to making good quality content, others in the region will obviously have to raise their standards and that, I believe, will complement the industry by introducing a competitive spirit.

How does this fare in the world that is fast becoming smaller with barriers coming down because of the virtual world?

This has dual view of the same action. As we develop regionally suitable content produced in the same region, I also see people in England, or elsewhere, watching a comedy or a movie produced in Abu Dhabi not just because it is an Arabic film about Arabic culture, but because it is a well-produced film with same international standards as you see globally.

Once that level of standards is achieved, where do you see the future of twofour54?

I do not see any purposeful existence of twofour54. Media industry will flourish in the emirate with major players indulging in big projects with global reach and international flavour.

Once that is achieved, you do not need an organisation such as twofour54, in its current form.

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