In light of recent developments in the TV-sector, public broadcasters are realizing the need for change in order for national broadcasters to recapture the viewers

All over the world, public broadcasters struggle with the challenge how not to lose their audiences. With the emergence of regional TV satellite channels as well as commercial TV channels in some countries, national public broadcasters in the Arab world have seen a dramatic drop in their audiences over the past years.

This has lead IMS and the Danish Broadcast Company DR to establish a cooperation with public broadcasters in three Arab countries to collaborate on innovative methods on how to develop productions in line with the public service obligations of public broadcasters as a means to maintain an audience for public broadcast TV. Building on a European concept of the public service obligations of public broadcasters, the project aims to develop new, innovative program formats for children and youth as a means to equip public broadcasters in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon with tools to cater to a broad audience in their country of origin.

The project has created a platform for collaboration and co-production between DR, TV Syria and Jordan TV. DR’s children and youth programs are internationally renowned for their high quality in terms of content as well as technically, and building on this, TV Syria And Jordan TV are able to benefit from the experiences of DR in producing home-grown, educational programs for children and youth of high quality and low cost.

IMS is providing assistance and financial support to this project through public Danish Funds.

Since 2005, the project has generated a co-production of six short films about children in the Arab world and their pets, the development of a youth magazine for Jordan TV and provided training to Syrian TV on developing new program formats for youth. A team of JRTV producers, who have gone through extensive training provided by IMS and DR, produces the Jordanian TV youth magazine named ”I Shebab”. Since February 2007, the show has been broadcast weekly.

Following the training, the JRTV-team has returned to JRTV to continue the production of “I Shebab” inside JRTV and to offer inspiration and training to other production units in JRTV on the new production methods applied by the “I Shebab”-team.

The collaboration is to expand the collaboration to include New TV in Lebanon on the development of a youth concept similar to the youth program produced by Jordan TV.