Media
From The Report: Dubai 2015
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Dubai plays host to more than 2000 major media companies, including 120 TV channels and broadcasters, and 180 production houses. While the effects of the global financial crisis have resulted in some residual caution among market players, there is plenty of upside for Dubai’s media and advertising outfits to tap into. In first-quarter 2014 newspapers had the highest advertising expenditure, pulling in $227m, or 57% of the total amount spent in those three months. Major potential for Arabic language content and a thriving pay TV sector, which in 2013 had an 85% penetration rate in the UAE, are expanding the sector’s offering.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

Digital advertising is catching up with Dubai’s mobile internet penetration rates
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With many of the region’s top agencies, publications, broadcasters, online outfits, and film and TV production companies based in the emirate, Dubai has a reputation as a lynchpin of the Arab and Middle Eastern media and advertising industry. Increasingly international in outlook and reach, the sector also benefits from a sophisticated local market, familiar with the latest digital platforms and genres, if not a little saturated by them. Increasing competition, technological advances and platform…

Analysis

Payment gateways remain an obstacle to growth in Dubai media
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A major growth segment in the regional media industry in recent years has been pay-TV, which has made significant inroads into territory once dominated by free-to-air (FTA). Dubai has been a centre for this, with its highly media-savvy and international population a major market. The official encouragement given to the media sector – via free zones such as Dubai Media City (DMC), Dubai Studio City and the International Media Production Zone – has also helped the segment along. Yet, pay-TV still…