'Arab Media to resume status as fastest-growing in the world'

The Dubai Press Club announced yesterday that Arab Media Outlook 2009-2013, the third edition of the ground-breaking report on the current state of the Arab media will be released tomorrow at a special function at the club. This will be followed by a panel discussion on the importance of local content creation in the region's media.

The report 'Arab Media Outlook 2009 – 2013: Inspiring Local Content', brought out by Dubai Press Club, offers a comprehensive analysis of media trends in the Arab World, a country by country assessment of the media in the 15 selected countries and a discussion on the creation and dissemination of local media content in the Arab countries.

The market research on media consumption habits were done in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Lebanon while the countries covered in the report are Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Sudan, Tunisia, the UAE and Yemen.

Maryam bin Fahad, Executive Director, Dubai Press Club, said the Outlook would document the latest developments in the Arab media authentically, besides forecasting advertising trends for the next five years. "We are very happy to have partnered with Value Partners, a highly respected global firm with solid experience in industry research and media studies, for the third edition of the outlook. The outlook will be a reference for policy makers, media personnel, regulators, financial investors, technology vendors and academics associated with the media sector,'' said Bin Fahad.

"The report will also testify to the remarkable resilience of the media in our region in the face of the many challenges thrown up by the global financial crisis. The report is much more detailed this year than the previous editions. Unlike previous editions, we are bringing out the Arabic and English versions separately due to the increase in the size of the report," she pointed out.

Bin Fahad added: "Following the negative impact of the global crisis in 2009, the Arab World is expected to quickly resume its position as one of the fastest- growing regions in the world in terms of advertising spend. Interviews with regional media industry stakeholders carried out for this study confirm a positive outlook starting in 2010."

"The next few years will see some major developments in the region's media industry. As the quality and quantity of locally-produced content improves, both consumers and industry players will start to see substantial benefits. Furthermore, driven by the younger generations, new platforms such as internet and mobile phones are increasingly accessible and becoming powerful platforms for advertising."

The first edition of the Arab Media Outlook was released at the Arab Media Forum 2007. It covered the entire range of issues relating to the development of people and organisations in the Arab media.

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