Three free-zone media cities in Amman, Cairo and Dubai compete for business: Cairo remains the Arabs' Hollywood while Dubai's media city is awash with new tenants.

April 8, 2004

Three countries in the Arab World, Egypt, Jordan and the UAE have adopted the concept of free zones for the media industry. Such free zones provide the investors and the media industry with a tax-free zone, which enables them to import hardware and software without any constraints and have attractive exemptions on corporate income taxes, especially for exported services and products. Media zones are hoped to create clusters of media industry (content production, broadcasting and services) that would help in creating job opportunities and encouraging more foreign investments inflows.

A new report, "Media Cities in the Arab World" was released to the Arab Advisors Group's Media Strategic Research Service subscribers on April 2, 2004.

This report can be purchased from Arab Advisors Group for only US$ 400. The 23-pages report, which has 20 detailed exhibits profiles and analyzes the three free zone media cities in Amman, Cairo and Dubai. Any investment in this report will count towards a Strategic Research Service - Media subscription should the service be acquired within three months from purchasing the report. .

Purchasing the report will also count towards attending the Arab Advisors Group’s Media and Telecommunications Convergence Conference in June 2004 in Amman. http://www.arabadvisors.com/Convergence2004/schedule.htm

"While the media cities create potential job opportunities, Egypt has the advantage of having local human resources at a lower wage, unlike Dubai's Media City which has a majority of foreign workforce. As a whole, the cost of establishing a media company in Egypt might be lower than in the other two media cities." Noted Mr. Abed AlRahman Pharaon, Arab Advisors Media Analyst and co-author of the report.

The three media free zones in Egypt, Jordan and the UAE have already succeeded in pulling Arab-focused media companies and stations to migrate from Europe to the Arab World. "Already Orbit, ART, Showtime, and MBC, to name some, have moved. The main winner in attracting these stations was the Media Free Zone in Dubai, UAE. ART has also moved to Jordan. While in Dubai, MBC moved there from the United Kingdom." Mr. Judeh Siwady, Arab Advisors Media Analyst added.

The report has four main sections that fully profile and analyze the three media cities. Naturally, the three media cities vary considerably in the facilities available, ownership and strategy. These variances are explored further in the cities profiles later in the report. Section II profiles the Dubai Media City, while the Egyptian Media Production City and the Jordan Media City are profiled in sections III and IV respectively.

This report comes as part of Arab Advisors Group's continued research and analysis of the Arab communications, media and information technology markets. The Arab Advisors Group is organizing a Media and Telecommunications Convergence Conference in June 2004 in Amman under the patronage of his Excellency, Dr. Fawaz Zubi Jordan's Minister of ICT.

The Arab Advisors Group’s team of analysts in the region has already produced more than 240 reports on the Arab World's communications and media markets. The reports can be purchased individually or received through an annual subscription to Arab Advisors Group’s (www.arabadvisors.com) Strategic Research Services (Media and Telecom). To date, Arab Advisors Group has served more than 130 global and regional companies by providing reliable research analysis and forecasts of Arab communications markets to these clients.