Watching the television with family has become firmly entrenched as a part of Ramadan, and TV networks spend up on comedy, drama and social programming to reap the benefits of premium advertising rates. Keach Hagey reports
Like a suffering heroine in a Ramadan historical drama, the region's media industry could do with some rescuing.
Advertising spending dropped 26 per cent in the UAE and 5 per cent in Saudi Arabia - the Middle East's top two domestic markets - in the first six months of this year from the same period last year, as the effects of the global financial crisis took its toll in the region.
Lay-offs have continued into August, a month that is traditionally so slow that employers usually are not bothered, or present, to make people redundant.
So it is fortunate that Ramadan, with its wildly popular comedies and historical dramas, should come just as the TV sector is hankering for a little escapism.
Many in the industry are going so far as to predict the surge in advertising spending that comes with this year's Ramadan television extravaganza might be enough to help pull the industry out of its doldrums.
Among the optimists is Nezar Nagro, the president of Rotana Media Services, which is the commercial arm of the Saudi-owned Rotana Group.
Best known for owning the rights to most of the world's Arabic-language music, the group tried to get in on the Ramadan TV action two years ago by switching the format of its Rotana Khalijiya channel from music to drama.
As it headed into its second Ramadan, it saw a significant increase in advertising.
"Compared to last year, sales are up 30 per cent," Mr Nagro says. "I think some of the clients that didn't spend in the first half of this year, because they were worried about the recession, have now started to spend."
Rotana has made a major investment to attract this advertising, spending US$10 million (Dh36.7m) on the 13 exclusive series it will air this month.
While Mr Nagro hints that this investment was probably not being reclaimed through ad sales alone this year - "The idea is not to get the feedback in one or two years, but it's long term" - it is part of a broader strategy to become a Ramadan player.
"This year, Khalijiya will be one of the major stations that will be in the competition of Ramadan," he said.
Several industry analysts support Mr Nagro's view that the Ramadan market is growing despite the economic downturn.
Bassam Yehia, a manager at the Pan Arab Research Centre (PARC), says he has only seen preliminary data so far, but he predicts a significant increase in advertising spending this Ramadan.
"It will increase 15 to 20 per cent compared to last year," Mr Yehia says. "Now all the companies have taken care of their problems, which happened from the beginning of the year to now. Everything is settled up."
This view makes sense in the context of PARC's data on the growth of the pan-Arab media market, which mostly consists of the region's 400 free-to-air satellite channels.
Despite declines in many markets, PARC found the pan-Arab media grew 40 per cent in the first six months of this year, compared with last year, taking 43 per cent of the region's advertising spending.
More optimistic signs came last week from a report by the Arab Advisors Group, which found that the average advertising rate on the Middle East's free-to-air satellite television channels had hit a record high of $3,362 for a 30-second spot this Ramadan.
But advertising sales at MBC, traditionally the highest ratings earner in Ramadan thanks to legendary comedies such as Tash Ma Tash, now in its 16th season, show a more mixed picture.
Mazen Hayek, the group director of marketing, PR and commercial for MBC, says the recession has been good for MBC's market share as advertisers with smaller budgets are more likely to go for the sure thing, and only the sure thing.
But the satellite powerhouse, with its flagship Arabic-language MBC 1 that has many of the holy month's most popular shows, is still approaching Ramadan with some caution, keeping the same rates as last year.
"In Ramadan, MBC1 becomes in a league of its own when it comes to its ratings," Mr Hayek says. "This has led to sustained advertising on MBC 1. The levels are very close to 2008, which was by all means a record year.
"Having said that, one has to take into consideration that this year there is a category of advertisers that practically disappeared from the mix, and that is real estate. If you compared apples to apples, probably Ramadan '09 is a bit less than Ramadan '08."
But MBC invested heavily in its Ramadan line-up this year.
"Usually the investment in the grid of Ramadan would consist of about 25 to 30 per cent of the MBC 1 yearly grid, in terms of acquisition and production," Mr Hayek says, adding that it returns a comparable percentage.
In recent years, MBC has added new revenue streams from technologies such as video-on-demand and mobisodes to its Ramadan offerings, but Mr Hayek says television watching, and therefore television commercials, remain at the centre of Ramadan family traditions.
"The other revenue streams will always be part of the equation but in Ramadan, it is the 30-second spot game that is the overwhelming source of revenue," he says.
In the battle to gain a share of this revenue, broadcasters continue to pull out all the stops in terms of budgets, and of introducing elements of controversy.
"We have probably the most number of big stars in huge works of drama this year that we've ever had at Abu Dhabi TV," says Karim Sarkis, the executive director of broadcast at Abu Dhabi Media Company, which owns Abu Dhabi TV and The National. "So it's our biggest Ramadan yet."
One of the biggest budget productions is Riyal Al Hasm, a controversial Syrian drama about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, complete with UK-produced post-production to render the battle scenes in cinematic detail.
Such detail can help push production towards the maximum cost for most Ramadan programmes of $70,000 an hour.
But one production that famously fell well outside this range, making headlines as the most expensive UAE drama production ever, will be returning this year on Dubai Media Incorporated's (DMI) English-language station, Dubai One.
Based on the poetry of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the series, called Seraa Ala Remal, or Struggles on the Sands, was initially projected to cost Dh22m, though since then Sheikh Mohammed's media aide has said the costs could be higher.
The epic screened in Arabic last year on DMI's Arabic-language flagship, Dubai TV, and this year is being re-broadcast with English subtitles, in the hope of including a broader audience.
Even stations without major budgets roll out special programming and rate cards for Ramadan. Noor Dubai TV launched at the start of Ramadan last year and this year hopes to attract even more viewers through special Ramadan documentaries and so-called "socio-Islamic" programming.
New offerings include a documentary about people who have converted to Islam from all over the world, and another that celebrates the jobs of unsung heroes around the UAE.
"Our key show this year is Ba'd Taraweeh, or After Taraweeh Prayers," says Butheina Kazim, the channel manager for Noor Dubai TV. "It's usually a time when people gather around in majlises and they socialise.
"It's a three-hour show and it's divided into a competition segment and a segment when we invite VIPS and well-known people from society to talk in a more informal environment about the more Islamic side of Ramadan. It's very interactive."
This mirror effect, of Muslim families gathering together in living rooms to watch the exploits of other Muslim families, whether they be Bedouins living hundreds of years ago or Syrians living today, creates an environment in which the traditional and commercial dimensions of Ramadan reinforce each other.
"In Ramadan, MBC 1 is part of the ritual of the month," Mr Hayek says. "People compare it to the way that Ramadan comes with dates. It becomes a family member."
khagey@thenational.ae
Recent winners
2002 Giselle Khoury (Colombia)
2004 Nathalie Nasralla (France)
2005 Catherine Abboud (Oceania)
2007 Grace Bijjani (Mexico)
2008 Carina El-Keddissi (Brazil)
2009 Sara Mansour (Brazil)
2010 Daniella Rahme (Australia)
2011 Maria Farah (Canada)
2012 Cynthia Moukarzel (Kuwait)
2013 Layla Yarak (Australia)
2014 Lia Saad (UAE)
2015 Cynthia Farah (Australia)
2016 Yosmely Massaad (Venezuela)
2017 Dima Safi (Ivory Coast)
2018 Rachel Younan (Australia)
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Profile of Hala Insurance
Date Started: September 2018
Founders: Walid and Karim Dib
Based: Abu Dhabi
Employees: Nine
Amount raised: $1.2 million
Funders: Oman Technology Fund, AB Accelerator, 500 Startups, private backers
Other key dates
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Finals draw: December 2
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Finals (including semi-finals and third-placed game): June 5–9, 2019
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Euro 2020 play-off draw: November 22, 2019
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Euro 2020 play-offs: March 26–31, 2020
No Shame
Lily Allen
(Parlophone)
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Company profile
Company: Rent Your Wardrobe
Date started: May 2021
Founder: Mamta Arora
Based: Dubai
Sector: Clothes rental subscription
Stage: Bootstrapped, self-funded
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
%3Cp%3EName%3A%20DarDoc%3Cbr%3EBased%3A%20Abu%20Dhabi%3Cbr%3EFounders%3A%20Samer%20Masri%2C%20Keswin%20Suresh%3Cbr%3ESector%3A%20HealthTech%3Cbr%3ETotal%20funding%3A%20%24800%2C000%3Cbr%3EInvestors%3A%20Flat6Labs%2C%20angel%20investors%20%2B%20Incubated%20by%20Hub71%2C%20Abu%20Dhabi's%20Department%20of%20Health%3Cbr%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%2010%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Scoreline
Abu Dhabi Harlequins 17
Jebel Ali Dragons 20
Harlequins Tries: Kinivilliame, Stevenson; Cons: Stevenson 2; Pen: Stevenson
Dragons Tries: Naisau, Fourie; Cons: Love 2; Pens: Love 2
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
If you go
Flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh with a stop in Yangon from Dh3,075, and Etihad flies from Abu Dhabi to Phnom Penh with its partner Bangkok Airlines from Dh2,763. These trips take about nine hours each and both include taxes. From there, a road transfer takes at least four hours; airlines including KC Airlines (www.kcairlines.com) offer quick connecting flights from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville from about $100 (Dh367) return including taxes. Air Asia, Malindo Air and Malaysian Airlines fly direct from Kuala Lumpur to Sihanoukville from $54 each way. Next year, direct flights are due to launch between Bangkok and Sihanoukville, which will cut the journey time by a third.
The stay
Rooms at Alila Villas Koh Russey (www.alilahotels.com/ kohrussey) cost from $385 per night including taxes.
The biog
Name: Abeer Al Shahi
Emirate: Sharjah – Khor Fakkan
Education: Master’s degree in special education, preparing for a PhD in philosophy.
Favourite activities: Bungee jumping
Favourite quote: “My people and I will not settle for anything less than first place” – Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid.
The biog
From: Upper Egypt
Age: 78
Family: a daughter in Egypt; a son in Dubai and his wife, Nabila
Favourite Abu Dhabi activity: walking near to Emirates Palace
Favourite building in Abu Dhabi: Emirates Palace
Profile of Foodics
Founders: Ahmad AlZaini and Mosab AlOthmani
Based: Riyadh
Sector: Software
Employees: 150
Amount raised: $8m through seed and Series A - Series B raise ongoing
Funders: Raed Advanced Investment Co, Al-Riyadh Al Walid Investment Co, 500 Falcons, SWM Investment, AlShoaibah SPV, Faith Capital, Technology Investments Co, Savour Holding, Future Resources, Derayah Custody Co.
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
