The famed British Broadcasting Corporation has announced it is launching a $35-million-per-year television channel in Arabic. It will be the Beeb’s first televisual foray into foreign languages.
For decades Auntie (as the BBC is affectionately known in the UK) has broadcast in dozens of languages via its international radio operation the World Service. The organization has admitted it is cutting around 10 foreign-language radio services in order to fund the Arabic effort.
The BBC is adamant the product is not meant as competition for the highly successful homegrown, Middle-Eastern satellite channel Al-Jazeera. However, Al-Jazeera execs are making public their welcome of “competition.”
The timing of the move is interesting, perhaps merely coincidental – although little is such in the cutthroat world of the media. Al-Jazeera is just finalizing the line-up for its first venture into the world of English-language broadcasts. The cynics amongst us would argue that the Beeb is perhaps more than a little peeved that Al-Jazeera is raiding the BBC’s own thoroughbred stable in order to launch its push into Western markets. Indeed, when Al-Jazeera first broke into the media world in the 1990s it poached some 30 BBC employees.
But let us put competition aside for the moment. Why would the leading British broadcaster want to reject the Thai, Polish, Bulgarian, Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Kazakh, Slovak and Slovenian languages and replace them with Arabic? In fairness to the BBC, one must point out this decision was not taken in isolation but in close coordination with the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office. While the punters pay for Auntie’s domestic services, overseas programming is funded by the FCO. Both the ministry and the BBC have been oft-accused of a pro-Arab bias, perhaps fairly, possibly otherwise.
But as this column has long maintained – in general the media does not hold strong biases, but merely falls into traps – something that we at The Media Line define as systemic bias. And the Arab world is a classic example.
This is all about raw economics.
The Arab world comprises some 250 million people, with the world’s Muslim population totaling more than one billion. It is a highly attractive market, in a developing part of the planet, which is beginning to learn about technology and the wider globe. There are so many opportunities in the region right now, in terms of business development, good governance, education, sponsorship and many others. Any nation that gets in at this point on the growth curve can only benefit. And the BBC/FCO investment is not a particularly high outlay, for potentially lucrative returns.
However.
Take the American entrée into the world of Arabic broadcasting. With the fall of Saddam Hussein, Washington launched Al-Hurra TV. It is a mix of news and other typically Western-style programming, but all in Arabic.
The official figures, as much as they can be accurate in countries where market research is in its infancy, make poor reading for the top dogs at the channel’s headquarters. Put simply, you cannot shove your message down the throats of people holding remote controls. And that is the challenge for the BBC. In all probability the organization will fare far better than Al-Hurra. It already knows the market well, having been broadcasting radio programs in Arabic for decades. It is also highly unlikely to try to send unpopular messages out to Middle Easterners. And the Beeb already has one key ally – the editor in chief of Al-Jazeera. He readily admits his car radio is permanently tuned into none other than the BBC’s World Service.