Back to Paper

Notes:

(1) Notably AOL-Time Warner, Bertelsmann and Vivendi Universal.

(2) Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Tunisia.

(3) This figure for Saudi Arabia includes spending on pan-Arab TV.

(4) Data from PARC, MEMRB and Stat-Ipsos collated by Canal France International shows an increase in average viewing times in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Kuwait over a four year period between the mid1990s to the end of the decade, compared with a decline in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Oman.

(5) Author's interview with Mohammed Hassan Rateb, Managing Director of AI-Mehwar, Amman, February 27''', 2002.

(6) Interview with the author, Amman, 1 March 2002.

(7) Privatization of public enterprises in the Arab world brought in $9.6 billion between 1990 and 1999, out of $320 billion in the developing world as a whole, leaving the public sector's share of total Arab GDP at 33 percent, compared with a developing-country average of 8 percent, according to a study by the Arab Monetary Fund (Kawach 2002).

(8) General Electric and Pepsi Cola.

(9) The list hardly needs repetition here. It includes AI-Ittijah al-Mu'akis ("The Opposite Direction"), Akthar min Ra'y "(More than One Opinion"), Bila Hudud ("Without Bounds"), Sirri lil-Ghaya ("Top Secret"), and so on. The channel's best known presenters include Faisal al-Qassim, Sami Haddad, Ahmad Mansour and Yosri Fouda.