From right, Mr. Jareer Maraqa, general Director Jordan Radio and TV, Mrs. Hala Zureiqat, Director Jordan TV and Mrs. Tania Wazzan, Program director , New TV, Lebanon. Photo:Osama al-Habahbeh/IMS

Public broadcasters in Syria and Jordan want to win back their audiences from commercial satellite TV-channels in the Arab region. In a meeting 7-8 February in Amman, Syria Radio and TV, JRTV and Lebanese New TV met with IMS and representatives from DR to discuss future collaboration

Over the course of the two day-meeting, the three stations agreed to cooperate on sharing content for youth programmes. According to the agreement, the three broadcasters are committing to provide at least two TV items per month on youth to a pool of programs which is to be shared with the other partners. The items may be edited and logos replaced with due credit to the TV station of its origin.

The agreement marks a major break-through:

- Finally, after three years of cooperation, we have an agreement, says Osama Al-Habahbeh, who is the IMS staff member responsible for this project within the frameworks of IMS media partnership programme with the Arab world and Iran.

New formats for youth programmes

In the past three years, IMS has brokered collaboration between the Syrian and Jordanian state broadcasters and Danish Broadcast Corporation (DR) to produce youth programmes. More recently, New TV from Lebanon came on board. Though privately owned, New TV is semi-public in the sense that it is committed to public service and to focus on young viewers, wherefore they were accepted into the group.

So far, the collaboration has, among others, lead to the joint development of a youth magazine. Teams in Syria Radio and TV, JRTV as well as New TV have been trained in producing a 30-minute youth magazine which is innovative in more than one sense. First of all, the magazine is focused on looking at youth issues through the eyes of youth, which is a novelty in the Arab region but a format that has been used by DR for years. Secondly, the production is more lean in the sense that everyone in the teams are able to film, edit and host the program.

Audience research has proven to be another field of expertise in demand with the three Arab broadcasters. When Jordan TV conducted a survey among its audiences last year, it was the first time ever that Jordanian audiences were asked their opinion about existing programmes and what they liked to see on TV. In all three broadcasting companies, teams have been trained to conduct audience research. Inspiration and training has been provided by DRs audience research unit.

Identifying a niche for national broadcasters

The focus on youth is based on two facts; first of all, 60 percent of the population in the Arab world are people below 30 years of age, wherefore it makes sense to target the younger audiences to become successful. Secondly, regional satellite channels may reach vast crowds accross borders throughout the region, but they are not in a position to produce youth programs that cater to specific national characteristics.

This offers a niche to be exploited by national broadcasters, as they may target their national audiences of youngsters. In order to succeed, however, experiences from other countries show that it is key to develop formats that involve young people:

- It is important for the national broadcasters to offer young people a platform for dialogue and interaction, says Osama Al-Habahbeh.

Another niche could be culture and arts such as books, cinema, theatre and other art forms, he explains:

- Al Jazeera for example has channels devoted to sports, news, children and documentary film but no cultural channel.

By the end of the meeting, the participants had listed a number of new ideas for collaboration, ideas that will be explored in coming months in close consultation with IMS.