Saudi popstar launches TV channel in conjunction with MBC

by Iain Akerman, Brand Republic 26-Jun-07, 10:20

DUBAI - Popular Arab singer Rashed Al Majid has joined forces with the Dubai-based MBC Group to launch an interactive music channel.

The 24-hour, free-to-air channel, called Wanasah, goes live on July 3, and hopes to tap into the new generation of Arab youth.

The station, broadcasting from studios in Dubai Media City, enters an already competitive marketplace populated by the likes of Rotana, Melody and Mazzika. It will soon be joined by MTV Arabiya, which is due to launch this summer.

Wanasah has been kept a closely guarded secret, with only a teaser campaign by ad agency BE International indicating that the 24-hour channel is due to go live next week.

Talking exclusively to Brand Republic, the channel's owner, Al Majid, said he believed that the combination of his musical background and MBC's expertise would help "deliver a great new channel that will represent a paradigm shift in the way people interact with and enjoy TV and music".

"We've put a lot of thought into what's missing in the market -- and there was a lot missing -- and we've come up with some amazing concepts that will have people hooked right from the start," he said.

"Think of it as the channel that will have enormous attitude, very targeted content and will take interactivity to a whole new level."

Wanasah is targeting both sexes of the new generation of Arab youth -- what has become known as "Generation Y" -- who represent almost 50% of the population of the region. The emphasis will be on mid-teens to mid-20s in Saudi Arabia. The station is also looking to discover and champion talent from the Gulf, as opposed to artists from the Levant and North Africa.

Al Majid, who is from Saudi Arabia but based in Bahrain, said: "Our audience is highly educated, cynical, bold and visionary, they are the people who set trends, they understand the power of the internet and the media, and they are the ones who actually set the rules in terms of what we'll be doing with tomorrow's technology.

"It's going to be a big challenge, but we're confident that we have what it takes to understand this group, reach out to them and ultimately create a 'Wanasah' community that empowers this group and becomes the entertainment world they escape to."

Dubai-based MBC, one of the region's biggest and most successful broadcasters, already has six channels, including the Arabic language MBC1, movie channel MBC2, the recently launched MBC Action and news channel Al Arabiya.