Global reach: Print publications dominate at home while local news broadcasting expands abroad

Known throughout the world as the home of Al Jazeera and the Doha Centre for Media Freedom (DCMF), a local watchdog with a global reach, Qatar has become a well-established player in international media with far-reaching influence. The domestic market, made up of traditional outfits in print, radio and television, as well as a burgeoning online segment, is also thriving. Both at home and abroad, Qatar presents opportunities and challenges that make it one of the more intriguing media centres in the region.

Print

Like much of the nation’s development in the last half-century, Qatar’s print media industry began with a state initiative. In 1969, the Department of Information established Doha magazine. Seeing strong demand, the department produced a second title, Education, the following year. The subsequent decade saw a raft of private publications enter the market, starting in 1970 with Al Urooba, a political weekly of the Al Urooba Press and Publishing Organisation, and including the first monthly magazine for women, Al Jawhara, in 1977.

From the late 1970s, the newspapers that today form a central pillar of the media sector were brought to market, including Gulf Times (1978), Al Raya (1979), Al Sharq (1987), Al Watan (1995) and The Peninsula (1996). More recently, other magazines have successfully entered, notably Al Arab, Qatar Tribune and Doha Magazine. Today’s market consists of eight newspapers (four in Arabic and three in English) and numerous magazines, yet despite the wide variety of channels, some observers consider it relatively undeveloped. “The print media industry is quite nascent in Qatar…and in magazine and monthly periodicals the offerings are even less,” Mohamed Jaidah, co-founder and CEO at Firefly Communications, told OBG. “Most material is in English, so there is a lot of room to develop Arabic monthlies, which at the moment target mainly women. There is also huge room to develop culture and lifestyle magazines, most of which now are generalised luxury lifestyle magazines, and definitely room to create monthlies on issues like health, exercise and other special subjects.”

While the press market has seen steady growth in recent years, estimating the circulation of Qatar’s unaudited publications is a challenge. A recent report from IREX, a US non-profit for international education and media, suggests figures for some of the top newspapers, such as Al Raya (18,000), Gulf Times (18,000), Al Sharq (15,000) and Al Watan (15,000), and estimates total circulation for the top five dailies at around 100,000.

Television

The domestic television market formed in 1970 with the creation of Qatar Television. The first colour broadcasts aired four years later, and a second state-owned channel was founded in 1982, but it was not until 1993 that Qatar Cablevision entered the market with satellite broadcasting, bringing cable TV to Qatari households and giving citizens, for the first time, access to international channels such as CNN and BBC.

It has since been followed by ART/1st NET, Orbit, Star Select and Gulf DTH/Showtime. Al Jazeera, launched in 1996, used satellites to reach a global audience.

Penetration of pay-TV in Qatar was close to 83% in 2011, according to “Arab Media Outlook 2011-15”, a study by Deloitte and the Dubai Press Club. There are also 15 free-to-air channels, 13 of them state-owned.

The biggest recent change has been the creation of Al Rayyan TV, a satellite channel that targets mainly Qataris but also aims to raise awareness of Qatar and its culture across the region. Speaking at the channel’s launch in May 2013, Hamad Al Zikaba, its programme director, explained the channel’s outward-looking philosophy: “Now is the best time to show Qatar to the rest of the world and highlight its typical aspects. Al Rayyan is the identity and guardian of Qatari culture.” It will broadcast from 6.00am to 12.00am in Qatar and on Nilesat in the Middle East, Europe and the US.

Al Jazeera

While the advent of Al Rayyan deepens the domestic TV market and could boost the nation’s global exposure, it will likely be overshadowed by an outfit with a broader reach. The Al Jazeera Network, based in Doha, is one of the world’s leading media companies and the first high-profile news channel to come from the Arab world. At its launch in 1996, Al Jazeera Arabic quickly found an audience in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) as an alternative to the state-run broadcasting companies that had monopolised programming in Arabic. Its readiness to adopt a non-mainstream line and engage controversial topics has won praise and criticism in equal measure. Al Jazeera English, founded in 2006, has brought the network even greater prominence, building a reputation for quality global coverage, especially from underreported regions such as Africa and Asia. As of 2012, Al Jazeera reached over 250m households in 130 countries, including large Asian markets such as Indonesia, and European ones such as Germany, France and the UK. It broadcasts in English 24/7 from Doha, London and Washington DC, and has a network of 65 bureaus worldwide, staffed by more than 400 journalists from over 60 countries.

In October 2013, the channel reached an important milestone when it was announced that Al Jazeera America (AJAM) will be carried by Time Warner Cable, the second-largest cable provider in the US. The decision ends months of uncertainty following AJAM’s entry into the US market in January 2013 with its estimated $500m purchase of Current TV. At that time, Time Warner dropped the channel from its line-up, while it waited for the programming to go live. Now, Al Jazeera’s network provides more than 20 channels including, besides its flagship news platforms, beIN Sport, Al Jazeera Turk, Al Jazeera Balkans and Al Jazeera Documentary. It has also expanded into human resources development by establishing the Al Jazeera Media Training and Development Centre and Al Jazeera Centre for Studies.

While the state’s ability to fund the network has been central to its constant growth in a competitive industry, Al Jazeera’s expansion into the potentially lucrative field of sports programming suggests that it is on a path to commercial self-sufficiency. The network has invested heavily in securing broadcast rights to professional football, including the Champions League, Europa League, France’s Ligue 1, and some key games in Germany and Italy. In early 2012 Al Jazeera unveiled its new channel, beIN Sport, based in Paris, Miami and Jakarta and operating three channels in France and two in the US (in both Spanish and English). The network’s activities in recent years have led to speculation that its next move will be into European pay-TV, whose main prize is the UK rights to the English Premier League now held mostly by News Corp and BskyB. Taking on such global giants is a sizeable challenge – organisations like BskyB and France’s Canal+ have large subscriber bases and control distribution via satellite while Al Jazeera must ink its own deals with cable, telecom and satellite companies – but the network’s vast potential and its drive to expand is rightly drawing the eyes of media observers.

Online & Mobile

The same year as Al Jazeera’s founding, 1996, also saw the nation’s first internet service established by Qtel, formerly Qatar Public Telecommunications Corporation but now known as Ooredoo. The company has since become a lead player in international communications. Publicly-traded and with a customer base of more than 93m, it dominates the domestic market, which has some of the most advanced infrastructure in the region. It aims to be among the top 20 telecom firms in the world by 2020.

In 2012, the Qatar National Broadband Network was licensed, making it the first state-funded passive infrastructure provider in the GCC. The new fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) technology, being rolled out in phases at a cost of $550m, will greatly enhance the nation’s broadband by 2015 and feeds into a trend of increased connectivity in Qatar. According to “Qatar’s ICT Landscape”, a report by ictQatar, the average household owns three mobile phones, two computers and one smartphone. Computer penetration has soared, more than doubling between 2008 and 2012. This has helped drive internet usage: penetration rose from 38% to 69.3% over the same period. Penetration rates are especially high with the young: 97% of those aged 15-24 own computers, 98% have access to the internet and 100% own mobile phones, according to ictQatar. The business community has done similarly, with upticks in internet penetration, broadband usage and web presence. Firms with 10 or more employees now have web penetration equal to the top nations in this respect, such as Australia, Japan, Korea, and EU countries.

The high connectivity enjoyed by Qataris allows them to take part in the wider upward trend of social media. In the MENA region, recent years have seen a steady rise in the number of both individuals and businesses that make use of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Total Facebook users in the Arab world as of end-May 2013 stood at 54.6m, up from 45.2m a year earlier, according to the Dubai School of Government’s Arab Social Media Report. Average country penetration rose from 12% to 19% over the same period. In Qatar, Facebook uptake in the three years to May 2013 rose from 22.5% to 34.4%. Iloveqatar.net, a local web forum, is the favoured social channel, scoring 75 on Klout, an app that ranks online influence on a 1-100 scale.

Advertising

As Qatar’s print, radio, online and mobile media increase in number and variety, companies are shelling out more for advertising. According to the Pan Arab Research Centre, non-government advertising spend rose from $272m in 2010 to $309m in 2012, with shopping malls and retail stores accounting for the biggest share. This private sector growth has offset a decline in government advertising outlays, which fell from $188 to $152 over the same period.

The growth of web media and online content has the potential to transform the advertising landscape in Qatar. For now, however, print media continues to dominate, with newspapers accounting for 78% of total advertising spending in 2012, followed by non-traditional channels including online (13%), magazines (6%) and television (3%). Online advertising in Qatar is still relatively undeveloped, though growing. As Khalifa Saleh Haroon, founder of Iloveqatar.net, told OBG, “Our adverts are time-based, not based on CPMs [cost per mille, or thousand views] or CPA [cost per action], and this is because the market is not ready yet.”

One area where online advertising is affecting the sector is price. A half-page ad in one of the major newspapers can cost upwards of QR20,000 ($5478) per day, and a package of 30x30-second slots on Qatar Television during Ramadan can cost in the realm of QR220,000 ($60,258). Domestic online platforms such as Qatar Living and Iloveqatar.net offer space for a fraction of that. Advertising outlays are expected to grow as the nation’s GDP continues to rise. This is part of a wider regional trend: ZenithOptimedia, a marketing firm, expects ad spend in the MENA region to grow between 2012 and 2015 by an average of 7.1%.

Legislation

Advertising in Qatar is regulated according to the medium in which it appears, a practice that has not changed much for some time. Newspaper and magazine ads fall under one law, the Press and Publication Law of 1979; and TV and radio commercials under another, the Radio and Television Law of 1997. The biggest legal change in recent years has come with the Advertising Law of 2012, which sets requirements for billboards and signage. One is that the primary text should be in Arabic, though some allowance is made for translations. While the effect of this is still unclear, some think it will reduce billboard spending, since many of Qatar’s residents do not read Arabic.

Media law is another concern. Though the current law from 1979 still holds, a new draft bill to replace it, passed by the Shura Council in June 2012 but not yet approved by the Emir, has prompted misgivings. The new law would require a degree in mass communication for foreign journalists, and set minimum age and credentials for domestic ones. Its critics say it could hurt Qatar’s image as the home of free media in the region, a reputation hard-earned by Al Jazeera and the DCMF. “The new law is an old-fashioned one, with a lot of prohibitions,” Jan Keulen, former director of the DCMF, told OBG. “For example, it delegates accreditation of journalists to the Ministry of Culture. We think the profession of journalism should be free. We understand the need for some regulation in a country like Qatar, but it should come with input from the sector itself, and not be the exclusive preserve of the government.”

The DCMF

The DCMF plays an important role in developing Qatari media. Founded in 2008 to support press freedom in the Arab World and beyond, this non-profit organisation is involved in advocating on the behalf of journalists worldwide, and building domestic capacity through media literacy and training programmes, which range from basic skills to specialist expertise. Among its flagship programmes are those centred on legal awareness and protection, journalists’ safety, information access and citizen journalism. Its “Train the Trainers” programme addresses the need for good pedagogy among Arab journalists who have a media background but lack the skills or opportunity to pass on their knowledge to younger colleagues.

Outlook

Generous state investments in Qatar’s media have positioned the country as a regional media giant, with brands such as Al Jazeera recognised worldwide. The country is well placed to continue expanding its media activities both in domestic and international markets, and on a more commercially rewarding basis. “Any media that relate to health care, sports or culture are prime areas where media enterprises could enter the Qatari market,” Everette Dennis, dean and CEO of Northwestern University in Qatar, told OBG. “Even within existing media in the market, there is room to further diversify offerings; most segments now all publish the same stories as newspapers, when each outlet should have a distinctive voice.” Further progress on Qatar’s infrastructure, such as the high-speed FTTH network, is likely to shift more content and advertising online, though the dominance of print and television to date suggests that this trend will be slow.

Assessing changes in Qatar’s media landscape may soon get easier. One initiative, a joint project of the DCMF and Qatar University begun in December 2012, aims to evaluate the industry using five categories of media development indicators devised by UNESCO. Results are expected in 2014. By applying these barometers to the domestic market, the DCMF aims to inform the public, raise awareness of Qatar’s media and ultimately help shape its media-related policies and development.