TV MEA MIPCOM 2016

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OCTOBER 2016

MIPCOM EDITION

OTT Platforms / Image Nation’s Michael Garin

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CONTENTS

Phoning It In We all know how much we rely on our smartphones. They have become extensions of ourselves, never out of reach, serving as personal assistants, organizers, entertainment sources (oh, and you can call people with them too).

Ricardo Seguin Guise Publisher Anna Carugati Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani Editor Kristin Brzoznowski Executive Editor Joanna Padovano Managing Editor Sara Alessi Associate Editor Victor L. Cuevas Production & Design Director Phyllis Q. Busell Art Director Simon Weaver Online Director Dana Mattison Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Elizabeth Walsh Sales & Marketing Manager Andrea Moreno Business Affairs Manager

Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development TV MEA © 2016 WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, #1207 New York, NY 10010 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.tvmea.ws

They have also become, in a lot of emerging markets in particular, the best way of reaching consumers who have resisted entering the pay-TV ecosystem. Look at some of the data for the Middle East and Africa: Cisco estimates that mobile data traffic will rise by a compound annual growth rate of 71 percent from 2015 to 2020, when the region will be home to a whopping 878.7 million mobile users—as compared to just 84 million internet-enabled TVs. Cisco also expects that 79 percent of internet traffic in the Middle East and Africa in 2020 will be from video services, compared with just 59 percent last year. In many markets, the lack of widespread fixed broadband infrastructure means that the majority of consumers are relying on their mobiles to access the internet. What does that mean for content platforms?

Deploying sophisticated, seamless services on smartphones is going to be essential. Not that the pay-TV sector in the region is at a standstill. To the contrary, all indications are that the industry is still growing, with subscriptions projected to reach 54.1 million by 2021, according to Digital TV Research, a 67-percent gain since 2015. Subscription and pay-TV revenues will rise from $7.95 billion to $11.47 billion in the same period. For the market leaders, including DStv and StarTimes, figuring out how to best deliver content on all the devices consumers are using will be paramount to keeping their pole positions. They’re also fending off a wealth of new competition.

As our in-depth report on the OTT market in the Middle East and Africa indicates, a number of new players are battling it out with pay-TV incumbents to capture a share of the viewing-and-subscription pie. From global heavyweight Netflix to local upstarts such as Icflix, everyone is trying to figure out the best combination of local and imported content, married with top-notch technology and a business model that works, as they face deep infrastructure issues, from slow connection speeds to a widespread lack of payment systems.

This edition of TV MEA also features an insightful Q&A with Michael Garin, the CEO of Image Nation Abu Dhabi.

Garin is a veteran of the American and European TV industries and he’s now using everything he’s learned about content and talent development to build up the media sector in Abu Dhabi and the UAE as a whole.

—Mansha Daswani

FEATURE 6 DIGITAL WAVE An in-depth look at the fast-developing landscape for on-demand and streaming businesses in the Middle East and Africa.

INTERVIEW

12 Image Nation’s Michael Garin Image Nation is investing heavily in developing the content sector in Abu Dhabi. CEO Michael Garin reveals his strategy, which includes ramping up the organization’s television slate.

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DISCOP Johannesburg “In today’s economy, the global television content trade industry demands more from market organizers such as DISCOP.”

November 2-4, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa Basic Lead, the organizer of DISCOP Johannesburg, is gearing up for the 2016 edition of the market and co-production forum, which is taking place November 2 to 4. Patrick Jucaud-Zuchowicki, the CEO of Basic Lead and founder of the DISCOP markets, says that all the major and mediumsized exhibitors that were present at last year’s event are returning in 2016. “That is a good sign given the state of the industry and the difficulties encountered by the largest African economies over the last 12 months, namely South Africa and Nigeria. Some of these companies have taken even larger exhibits than in the past, which means that we will have a market floor that has expanded by close to 15 percent.” The U.S. will be DISCOP Johannesburg’s Guest Country, and the event will host for the first time an American Umbrella “to welcome U.S. independent producers and distributors, and a series of workshops and events will help tighten relations between independents from the U.S. and independents from across the continent,” Jucaud-Zuchowicki says. He adds that as a central goal, “DISCOP Johannesburg will stay focused on core values, improve customer service and performance, make sure to appeal to a younger demographic, and guarantee greater content diversity to buyers while delivering more deals to sellers.”

—Patrick Jucaud-Zuchowicki

DISCOP Johannesburg 2015

FremantleMedia International American Gods / Fashion Startup / The Lie Detective A FremantleMedia North America production, American Gods is based on the international best-selling novel of the same name by Neil Gaiman and is due to debut on Starz in the U.S. next year. FremantleMedia International is offering up the series at MIPCOM for buyers from the Middle East and Africa (MEA). “American Gods has become one of the most talked-about dramas of the year, despite the fact that it hasn’t aired yet,” says Anahita Kheder, the company’s senior VP of sales for MEA and Southeastern Europe. “The urban fantasy is unlike anything out there at the moment and with such incredible on- and off-screen talent attached to it, it is continuing to create a huge buzz worldwide.” Another highlight for the region is Fashion Startup, which follows aspiring fashion and beauty entrepreneurs. It is produced by the same team behind the successful Project Runway franchise. “This series is quite inspiring and with the growth in the MEA fashion industry, this could potentially inspire entrepreneurs in the region,” says Kheder. There is also The Lie Detective, in which current, potential and former couples participate in candid conversations about their relationships. “The Lie Detective is true edge-of-your-seat viewing,” adds Kheder. “The U.K. version of the series is addictive, and I’m looking forward to presenting the format to buyers to make local versions. It’s full of drama and will engage audiences.”

“FremantleMedia International in MEA is going strong.... This year we’ve seen a huge number of sales, commissions and recommissions.”

—Anahita Kheder

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SDI Media Dubbing / Subtitling / Access services SDI Media offers clients a complete end-to-end localization solution for broadcast, theatrical, VOD, digital platforms, gaming and corporate needs, “using the most comprehensive suite of customizable localization software applications in the industry,” according to Sharyn Hopkins, the company’s senior VP of global sales and business development. Through its network of facilities, incorporating more than 150 recording rooms and 85-plus mixing rooms, SDI Media provides dubbing, subtitling, access services and other media solutions in more than 80 languages worldwide, servicing 40 markets across EMEA, Asia and the Americas. “Our ability to provide clients with flexible, tailor-made solutions, managed by dedicated client representatives in each territory, enables SDI Media to offer direct communication and support to our clients as they grow their brands across international markets,” Hopkins says. With offices in the Middle East, SDI Media has in-territory resources able to provide local assistance for all types of localization projects. “We are currently localizing content that is distributed across the Middle East and Africa, as well as taking content originally created in those territories and localizing it for distribution across the world in many languages,” says Hopkins. “As global platforms continue expanding into these territories, SDI Media is committed to ensuring resources are available to support growth within the region.”

“SDI Media provides boutique-style, one-onone servicing, all supported by a global team of resources.”

—Sharyn Hopkins

SDI Media facilities

Televisa Internacional The Three Sides of Ana / Waking Up with You / Secrets at the Hotel The traditional telenovela The Three Sides of Ana is among the highlights Televisa Internacional is promoting for the Middle East and Africa at MIPCOM. The series tells the story of triplets—Ana Lucía, Ana Leticia and Ana Laura—whose lives are changed forever when a serious accident leaves their parents dead, and Ana Lucía separated from her family.

While Ana Laura is desperate to find her missing sister, Ana Leticia will stop at nothing to make sure Ana Lucía is never found because she does not want to share her inheritance or the love of those around her. Destiny eventually brings all three sisters together. Another telenovela on offer from Televisa Internacional is Waking Up with You, which chronicles the unexpected love story of Maia and Pablo, who come from different social classes. Maia is the daughter of Othón, an important flower grower, while Pablo belongs to the bodyguard squad that escorts Antonia, Othón’s biggest rival. Many obstacles stand in the way of Maia and Pablo’s love. Televisa Internacional is also presenting Secrets at the Hotel. The drama tells the story of Julio, whose sister Cristina goes to work at a hotel and suddenly stops corresponding with him. When Julio goes to the hotel, he discovers that Cristina allegedly left a month before under mysterious circumstances. Julio is determined to discover what actually happened to his sister.

Secrets at the Hotel

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DIGITAL

Cream Cartel on ShowMax. 560 WORLD SCREEN 10/16

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L WAVE Jay Stuart takes an in-depth look at the fast-developing landscape for on-demand and streaming businesses in the Middle East and Africa.

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evenue and subscriber numbers for OTT services are on a steep growth trajectory in the Middle East and Africa. A study from Digital TV Research projects 19.59 million SVOD homes across 28 countries by 2021. Total OTT revenues will hit $1.8 billion by then. The study flagged 2016 as the “watershed year” for the region’s OTT business.

The Middle East and Africa has the world’s highest proportion of people under 30—close to 70 percent of the population.

The propensity of young people to consume media via the internet automatically makes the region ripe for OTT. When you add the fact that television content is to a greater or lesser extent restricted by censorship in most countries there, OTT is also positioned as a freer alternative to broadcast TV. Thus, the opportunities become even hotter.

“There is a big, young, digitally savvy audience across the region,” says Christophe Firth, a principal at management consultancy A.T. Kearney. “Digital innovation is taking place in unexpected places like Saudi Arabia. But for OTT to achieve its potential, a number of barriers and impediments need to be overcome. The biggest barrier is that payment mechanisms are lacking.”

According to David Mühle, the regional director for Northern Europe and the Middle East at Ooyala, a provider of OTT solutions, the Middle Eastern market has turned a corner.

“The Middle East is a couple of years behind a market like the U.S., but what happens in this type of situation is they catch up and then they move very fast,” Mühle observes. “Advertising-based OTT is going to take some time to grow because the advertising market is still small.

The development is in SVOD and AVOD. We see the big telcos aggregating offers and doing a good job, and they will grow their market share in the OTT space. Traditional broadcasters like OSN are moving in. The real explosion is in the companies starting from scratch. I would say that of 50 new initiatives in OTT, 10 percent will be very successful. A year from now, at least one of them will probably have some market share.”

OTT players come in different shapes and sizes. Starz and Netflix are big international companies focused on international content. Established pay-TV companies such as beIN and OSN have also gotten into OTT, and so have free-TV companies like MBC, which has the biggest entertainment library in the region and has launched the OTT service Shahid.

Then there are the pure “from-scratch” OTT players like Icflix, Telly and Istikana and the VOD service Cinemoz.

“The outlook for the local OTT networks is hard to gauge,” says A.T. Kearney’s Firth. “It’s too early to tell. We expect to see a proliferation of OTT services. If they can carve out a niche, they can survive and prosper.”

READY, SET, GO OSN’s stand-alone OTT service, GO Online TV, launched in May 2014. Since its debut, “digital consumption has become more prominent in the region generally,” says Emad Morcos, chief content officer at OSN. “GO’s importance to OSN’s overall brand is increasing, which means we can launch new and exciting projects. OTT is not just another form of delivery, it is our proactive response to the market, which has opened up to digital in a big way. We believe that the market potential for OTT is significant and untapped. While there are a number of players in the market, our first-mover advantage and our focus on offering premium content positions us at the top of the game. Competition arguably comes not only from within the industry in this region, but we’re also up against the use of virtual private networks (VPNs).”

Morcos adds, “Our challenges come from ensuring that investment is made in the technology to keep up with market trends. Understanding audiences is also key, and [knowing] how best to implement analytics to ensure OSN has the best available data at its disposal. Finally, brand recognition is key, so we make sure that GO stands out in an ever-expanding market by being innovative with its marketing. The platform has to keep evolving.”

Establishing a brand is critical in a market in which there is so much noise. You need a brand that resonates, and that establishes trust and a connection with consumers.

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prime focus has always been original Arabic programming, as there is a constant demand for local content. We want to ensure that we cater to the needs of the local market. We can comfortably say that we have the largest Arabic library online, and we’re also doing our own original Arabic production.”

STARZ Play Arabia, which launched in 17 territories in the Middle East in April 2015, also appears untroubled by the arrival of Netflix. “We are definitely complementary,” says John Penney, STARZ Play Arabia’s chairman (and chief strategy officer at Starz). “Many consumers want both of us.”

The company has made payment processing a special focus of its regional efforts.

“The risks were large going into the Middle East,” says Penney. “There was a big learning mountain to climb.”

PAY TO PLAY

STARZ Play Arabia is acquiring local fare to complement its deep library of Western content, taking on titles like the Arabic-language Malik Bin Al Rayb.

“The model the Middle Eastern companies can learn from is their biggest competitor, Netflix,” Firth says. “It is led by the brand and experience. Netflix packages, curates, personalizes, recommends. It is an enabler. Sure, it’s spending something like $6 billion on original content this year, but its secret sauce is a phenomenal experience based on technology.”

NETFLIX EFFECT When Netflix officially launched in the Middle East in January 2016, it was already in the region via VPNs, and as many as 200,000 expats had been accessing the American service. The new Middle East version is a shadow of the original because of local pay-TV deals already in place. For example, House of Cards, a signature Netflix original, is not on the regional service because the rights were acquired by OSN. Netflix does plan to invest in local content in the Middle East, but it remains a global product.

Carlos Tibi, the founder and CEO of rival OTT platform Icflix, has welcomed the arrival of Netflix. “We are happy that Netflix is now officially present in the region, as this will further build consumers’ confidence in online methods of payment. [It will also] give the public more choice and a chance to compare between content providers,” he says. “With the rise of streaming services in the region, audiences will now be more inclined to subscribe to multiple streaming services [to have] a wider choice of content to choose from. This will also help curb piracy in the region, which has always been a challenge.”

Tibi acknowledges that the downside is that Netflix’s acquisition of global rights for Hollywood titles may potentially drive up content and programming costs. “However, our

The challenges in setting up payment systems for subscribers are not just related to low credit-card penetration rates. In fact, some parts of the Middle East have high penetration rates. The problem is that consumers tend not to use their credit cards for recurring monthly payments. This obstacle dovetails with a second one, which is low bandwidth capacity. The Middle East has two tiers when it comes to high-speed broadband: the United Arab Emirates and urban Saudi Arabia have it and other places don’t. Telcos are key players because they have payment relationships with the market and access to bandwidth. Local OTT company Telly already partners with a telco in Kuwait.

STARZ Play Arabia has both an OTT business and a carrierbundled business. A consumer can get the video service either individually or as part of a bundle. “Many of our potential customers have durable billing relationships with our partners,” Penney says. “You can sign up for us online with only your phone number.”

However, in the Middle East, the majority of telephone subs are prepaid accounts, for which there is no credit relationship between the consumer and the provider.

The added complexity is that the STARZ Play Arabia service is an add-on for the telephone customer. The carrier does not do the billing for STARZ, even though the platform has to bill through the carrier.

“One of the big challenges has been answering the question, How do you bill for an $8-per-month service in a prepaid market?” Penney says. “We have a system integrated with carrier billings. Our key area of investment has been in technical IP and speed of integration for the consumer. Under the leadership of our regional CEO, Maaz Sheikh, we have built a consumer video service that has at its core not only a curated content and recommendation system, but also a billing system that learns from the consumer. We are a true partner of the carriers in the region instead of relying on credit cards. That is a real differentiating position.”

Since Icflix launched three years ago, it has learned, adapted and evolved. A central part of its growth has been the development of strategic partnerships with telecom operators right across the region. “By becoming their videoon-demand partner, we give them another opportunity to increase the ARPU for data consumption while making legal streaming available to wider audiences,” Tibi says. “We have also expanded our native app, making Icflix available on more than 12,000 devices.”

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In the battle for OTT dominance, producing local content is emerging as the key tactic. “We see a real resurgence in local content,” says A.T. Kearney’s Firth. “Broadcasters are doubling down on local production. As the world becomes more global and connected, there is a desire to reconnect with local culture and heritage. This is part of the OTT opportunity, too.”

STARZ Play Arabia recently took a big step in the content area with the addition of a slate of French-language and Arabic programming just before Ramadan. Original production, however, is not a priority. “When the long-term business is durable, we will map out the next stage of strategy,” Penney says. “We might decide to move into new markets before we get into production.”

CONTENT WARS Icflix has made investing in local content its core USP. “Our focus on original exclusive drama not only differentiates Icflix as a brand but also helps grow Arab content production,” Tibi says.

Output so far has included HIV; the Egyptian police thriller Al Makida; the series Alf Leila we Leila (1001 Nights), which launched during Ramadan; and the Tunisian co-production Chbabek El Jenna (Borders of Heaven) by Fares Naânaâ. This year, Icflix launched its first original animated TV series, Dunia. The company is currently working on several original productions in partnership with the Centre Cinématographique Marocain. It is co-producing Burn Out with Noureddine Lakhmari and a TV series called Familia is in the works. Icflix’s feature film Come Back will be the first movie to address the ISIS problem and its ramifications on the Arab community living in the region and abroad.

Meanwhile, Morcos reports that output deals have been crucial for OSN “to guarantee the strongest possible flow of content right from the first available distribution window. With our current deals, exclusive with almost all major content providers, there is much more recognition of the value of all pay-TV windows, and OSN is now securing digital rights as standard. This helps strengthen our OTT platform’s offering, and it keeps us ahead of competitors’ content offerings.”

Morcos adds, “Exclusivity gives a platform value. Being the home of exclusive content—as OSN is with HBO shows—is a positive way to secure an assured and growing audience.”

of piracy—like finding the content and worrying about viruses and doing something illegal.”

In Africa, payment is a problem, as it is in the Middle East.

Since the end of 2015, ShowMax has been distributing vouchers in the market, so people don’t have to pay by credit card.

They are available at point of purchase in about 500 retail outlets. Consumers can pay for one, three or six months. Netflix does not have a voucher system.

“Localization is the best way to differentiate: local payment options, local content and local functionality,” Boorman says.

Internet connectivity in Africa is not great, and the cost is relatively high. To address this, ShowMax has introduced downloads. “You can get up to 25 programs and store them for up to 30 days. You can choose from four different file sizes. WiFi is becoming more and more available, and people can watch on their mobiles.” ShowMax also offers bandwidth-capping, so consumers have more certainty about the charges.

Another localization factor is partnerships. ShowMax worked with Samsung, which offered three months of ShowMax free to purchasers of smart TVs, and it also has data deals with Telkom.

THE AFRICAN EXAMPLE Piracy remains a significant problem in the Middle East and North Africa, and farther south in sub-Saharan Africa, where companies operating in the OTT market share many of the same challenges.

“Our competitors are piracy and Netflix,” says Richard Boorman, the head of communications for OTT service ShowMax, which is available in 36 African countries. “People tend to subscribe to more than one SVOD service,” Boorman says. “SVOD is not like online music. There is no Spotify offering you everything in one place. It doesn’t tend to be either ShowMax or Netflix because they offer different things. The best way to fight piracy is to offer a service that is good enough at the right price so that you ultimately encourage people to subscribe. Your price point makes it not worth the hassles Buni.tv, a leading pan-African VOD service, was recently acquired by channel operator TRACE TV. 10/16 WORLD SCREEN 563

Icflix’s originals slate includes the Tunisian feature film Borders of Heaven.

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OSN’s deal with NBCUniversal covers the pay-TV and OTT rights to movies like Fast & Furious 6, which is available on GO Online TV and OSN Play.

Although ShowMax is part of South Africa’s Naspers group, alongside MultiChoice, it is a separate entity that actually competes with MultiChoice’s regional pay-TV provider, DStv. “For some people, OTT is either-or in terms of pay TV and for others it’s additive to pay TV,” Boorman says. “It’s certainly possible that we are cannibalizing if people want to cut the cord or, in DStv’s case, the satellite connection. But research shows that SVOD is often additive.

If you want to see Game of Thrones seasons one to five, subscribe to ShowMax and binge. If you want season six, you need DStv. You get DStv for sports and news. For binge-watching, it’s ShowMax.” One obvious benefit of being a cousin of DStv is that, because ShowMax is on DStv’s Explora decoder, people who want ShowMax do not have to sign up separately.

With over 20,000 episodes and movies totaling about 15,000 hours, ShowMax has the largest catalog in the market. In South Africa, the content is about 70 percent international and 30 percent local. Original content is on the company’s radar. Right now the focus is on developing the platform and distribution.

WITH A TRACE In June, TRACE TV (75 percent owned by Sweden’s Modern Times Group) announced the acquisition of pan-African VOD service Buni.tv as a regional foundation for the launch of its international VOD platform, TRACE Play. TRACE hopes to have TRACE Play in 60 to 80 countries. Launched in 2012, Buni.tv is one of the three main African VOD platforms, along with ShowMax and iROKOtv. “The Buni.tv acquisition is one step toward our goal of being the urban, Afro-American and Caribbean and African content platform for the world,” says Olivier Laouchez, cofounder, chairman and CEO of TRACE. “We are already very strong in music, which is a powerful differentiator. We want to export that musical DNA to other content.”

As part of the deal, TRACE obtained the rights to the comedy shows Ogas At The Top (Nigeria) and The XYZ Show (Kenya).

TRACE will continue to invest in original African content and plans to offer exclusive series, movies and other programming.

“Africa is potentially a huge market, but most of the new players in the OTT space are small,” Laouchez says.

“We are hoping to be able to consolidate existing platforms. It’s the only way to develop the size you need to compete with Netflix. We want to offer African programming with African talent. To do that, we need to build a machine with the size to do it. SVOD operators invest heavily in technology, and they’re all doing pretty much the same thing. Technology will be neutral. The differentiator will be content. It would make sense to work together and invest in content instead.”

He believes the only viable way to get OTT off the ground in Africa is with a paid model. The advertising market is not there to support it, and YouTube dominates free content.

The biggest challenge to growth, Laouchez says, is the very low level of access to adequate bandwidth for video across the region. “The key is the investment by internet providers in offering the bandwidth at affordable prices. The most important companies are the mobile operators. We want to work with them by offering content that will help them build their brands and drive their 4G and other services.”

A.T. Kearney’s Firth also sees the logic of consolidating content in the OTT game. The winning hand may be a full house that offers consumers a choice of streaming services to pick from, in the Middle East, Africa and around the world.

“The market is in transition everywhere,” he says. “Following the first wave of services led by the likes of Hulu and Netflix, there has been an explosion of quality and diversity with lots of different services offering attractive content. This means that some consumers might want to subscribe to five or six or eight different SVOD providers, [and have] a different commercial relationship with each one. There will be a role for aggregators in the OTT space, as we see in pay TV.” But that role will be bigger and better.

“The future is going to be ‘smart aggregation,’ ” Firth continues. “OTT will be able to be much more clever at bundling attractively. With pay TV, customers might get 300 channels, many of which they don’t want. Smart aggregation will enable them to get the OTT services they want and pay for those alone. This is a trend we will probably see globally.”

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Image Nation Abu Dhabi is on a mission to turn the emirate into a thriving content hub in the Middle East. The organization has been investing in both local and Hollywood movies and theatrical documentaries and has kicked its television activities into high gear with the Arabic-language drama Justice and Quest Arabiya, a joint-venture channel with Discovery Communications. The CEO of Image Nation is Michael Garin, who is using his years of experience working in Hollywood and the emerging markets of Central and Eastern Europe to cultivate a strong and successful production business in Abu Dhabi. He tells TV MEA about his strategy.

TV MEA: Image Nation is well known for its feature-film output. Why was it important to begin developing the TV side?

GARIN: We’ve been developing the TV business very aggressively. Our mission is to build the foundations of a film and television business in Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). What became clear to Mohamed Al Mubarak [the chairman of Image Nation] and me early on is that when you make movies, it’s like throwing a rock into a pond. It makes a very big splash, the ripples spread out and then five minutes later the pond is calm again. With television, if it’s a channel [the ripples continue] 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, and if it’s a series it could [make an impact for] six months or more. If we’re going to build a sustainable industry, television has to be at the center of everything we do. We’re not diminishing the importance of movies, but they alone are not going to build a sustainable industry in our region.

TV MEA: How did you begin building the television slate?

GARIN: We began the way most things start at Image Nation: the [Abu Dhabi] leadership identifies an issue but doesn’t know how to address it in entertainment terms. Our first production, Beyond Borders, began with a conversation between Mohamed Mubarak Al Mazrouei [Undersecretary of the Crown Prince Court, the governing body of Abu Dhabi] and our chairman, Mohamed Al Mubarak. This is a region of great wealth and the leadership lead by example. They have a very careful eye on the youth. We came up with the idea of taking a group of young Emiratis, between the ages of 16 and 18, to the Philippines—where their maids come from, where many of their luxury goods are made—and introducing them to real life. We produced a six-hour documentary that ran on MBC. It subsequently ran on Abu Dhabi Television as a half-hour series. It resonated everywhere—with the audience, with the leadership—and it was a life-changing experience for the kids. It gave us confidence that we could do two things at the same time: entertain and inform.

The next one we did was UAE Youth Ambassadors, documenting an impressive undertaking that demonstrates the long-term vision of the UAE. [The government] takes the best university graduates to countries that have been identified as being important to the long-term future of the UAE. They learn the language, the culture, and can start building their personal networks. The first year we followed them to China and Korea. In a program airing this fall, we followed a different group to China, Korea and Germany.

TV MEA: You’ve also expanded into scripted. How did Qalab Al Adalah (Justice) come about?

GARIN: It began with a discussion with Sheikh Mansour [chairman of the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department]. The Judicial Department is proud of the quality of justice that is available to everyone, whether they’re citizens, residents or visitors.

The question was raised as to how we could showcase this. So we proposed [a legal drama] as a solution. And that sparked a lot of interest. We got a grant to develop the show, and we followed Image Nation and UAE traditions in marrying the best of international expertise with local talent and knowledge. We went to [American producer] Walter Parkes, and he came up with the concept of a series that followed the plight of a young Emirati woman who grew up in the UAE, went to the United States for university and a law education, and then returned to the UAE and became a lawyer. Walter, with his extensive experience and connections, reached out to Billy Finkelstein, an Emmy-winning writer and executive producer of shows like L.A. Law and NYPD Blue. He developed the series into 20 one-hour episodes and came up with a brilliant story arc that I call L.A. Law meets Dallas in Abu Dhabi. It’s a courtroom drama. It’s a family drama. It all takes place in Arabic in Abu Dhabi.

We brought it to the Judicial Department, who also loved the idea, and they agreed to work with us to guarantee its authenticity. The cases that they proposed to us were so much more cutting edge than we would have dared to include. Most people think that the government wants to shape the message and control things and doesn’t want to show the underside of society, which, if you’re doing a court show, you can’t avoid. We got cases from them that we would have been somewhat reticent to propose: drugs, spousal abuse, homicide, it was a full range of things you’d expect to come across in a courtroom.

TV MEA: Will you be taking it out to the global market?

GARIN: Everything we do, we try to make it for a global audience. We do that for several reasons. Firstly, our television market is a Gulf market, and it loses money. So the only hope of creating a sustainable industry is to make programs that travel around the world. And secondly, people have so many misconceptions about our part of the world that we hope that when they see the programs we make, it not only will entertain but also inform them about what family life is like, what the system of justice is here. When you think about the programs that come to MIPCOM, nobody cares what language they are shot in. What matters is the quality of the production, the story and the acting. We think we’ve nailed it with this series.

TV MEA: Tell us about Quest Arabiya, your venture with Discovery Communications.

GARIN: It gives us a whole different resource. We’re completely dependent on general-entertainment networks to run our [scripted] programs. With Quest, we both commission and broadcast the programs. It is the other reason our output is expanding exponentially. The general-entertainment

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GARIN: I do. It is sort of how I ended up coming to Abu Dhabi.

When I arrived at CME, all of our stations were run by local people, but 100 percent of our corporate staff in London were from Canada, the U.S., U.K., Australia, New Zealand. When I left CME, my successor was from Central and Eastern Europe and more than 50 percent of the corporate staff was from the region. What Abu Dhabi aspires to is local control of their destiny. When Mohamed Al Mubarak and I arrived, 3 percent of the staff, one person, was Emirati, and now over 60 percent of our permanent staff are Emirati. Every job other than mine where there’s an expat number one, there’s an Emirati number two who in three to five years will be ready to assume that responsibility.

Image Nation Abu Dhabi has stepped up its TV efforts with productions like Justice, an Arabiclanguage legal drama.

networks recognize us as one of the leading sources of entertainment programming. With Quest, we’re recognized as one of the main sources of factual entertainment as well, as opposed to just pure documentaries, which we’re also doing.

Our goal for Quest Arabiya is to [eventually produce up to] 40 percent of the content of the channel, and the rest will come from Discovery. Our main reason for being at MIPCOM is to meet international producers to partner with us on content for Quest.

TV MEA: What are you doing in the doc space?

GARIN: Probably the most important documentaries that we’ve done to date are He Named Me Malala and Every Last Child.

He Named Me Malala was directed by Academy Award winner Davis Guggenheim and produced by Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald under their long-term production partnership with Image Nation Abu Dhabi. It was made in association with Participant and National Geographic Channel and distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures worldwide. Every Last Child, directed by award-winning filmmaker Tom Roberts, was about the ongoing polio crisis. Bill Gates, through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Abu Dhabi, committed $4.5 billion to eradicate polio. With the World Health Organization, they asked us to help manage the communications effort to support this initiative. There were two components: in Pakistan [one of three countries where polio remains endemic], and then around the world with an international documentary. We made a 3.5-minute video, A Leap of Faith, in Urdu, which encouraged [Pakistani migrants in the UAE] to make sure their children were vaccinated. We needed to be as creative in our distribution strategy as we were in the content creation, so we ran this [in theaters] before Bollywood movies, we brought it to the labor villages and held screenings, it aired on [Etihad] flights to Pakistan.

And it had a very real impact.

TV MEA: In your current role, do you see any parallels between Abu Dhabi now and the state of the Central and Eastern European media businesses when you were at CME?

TV MEA: What have been some of your biggest challenges in developing the local sector?

GARIN: Interestingly, the biggest challenge is with the audience. This is an incredibly sophisticated audience. They see the same Hollywood movies, the same Netflix series, the same everything that Western audiences see, day and date.

They have very low expectations for local production. Our biggest challenge is to get local audiences to understand that if they go see an Emirati film or watch an Emirati television program, it might be a different entertainment experience, but it will be every bit as satisfying as the ones that they’re used to seeing. That’s why our sale of [the feature film] Zinzana (Rattle the Cage) to Netflix was so critical. People may not have seen it in the movie theaters, but when they see it on Netflix, they’ll say wow, the next time Majid Al Ansari makes a movie, maybe I’ll go see it in the theater.

The vast majority of money spent in our region for programming is spent in one month, during Ramadan. Justice is designed to run outside of Ramadan. Producing a series before it’s sold is unheard of in television terms, but nobody would buy this series until they saw it. This is part of what we had to do in terms of building an industry and investing in the future. We hope broadcasters will find that they can attract audiences and revenues in the other 11 months of the year. And Image Nation will supply its fair share of that content. But I always say, We’re not trying to build Image Nation, we’re trying to build the nation. Everything we do is with and through private-sector companies. We’re not trying to build a monolithic company. If I were in Hollywood or at CME, I’d try to be as big as we could be. That’s not what we’re trying to do here. We’re trying to build an industry. I’m working for a country. My job is to make everybody succeed.

TV MEA: How does Image Nation work with twofour54?

GARIN: We are sister organizations. Noura Al Kaabi, who is the chairwoman of the Media Zone Authority and twofour54, is on our board. twofour54’s mission is to make sure that there is an infrastructure in place that allows us to have a sustainable industry. Image Nation’s role is to make sure that there are local creative capabilities to utilize that infrastructure so that we’re not solely dependent on outside production companies using us strictly as a location. The talent that exists in Abu Dhabi is extraordinary, and it’s the rich dividend that 50 years of investment in education and empowerment of women is paying. This is a changing society and the modern and the traditional are coming to terms with each other. It’s one of the key themes of Justice. That’s one of the reasons we think it will be such a powerful series.

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