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 Saudi Arabia may be getting up to four new private radio stations next year, with Rotana and ART among the possible bidders for the FM licences.
A report in The National
reveals Rotana to be among the 30 or so companies potentially competing for the upcoming licences. The article also hints ART-owner Saleh Kamel may be bidding, naming him as one of those who have been pushing for the new station rights.
Companies now have two months left to apply for the licences, which will be the first private FM stations to compete against MBC’s two national operations, MBC FM and Panorama.
The National quotes Abdul Majeed, an official at the Ministry of Information and Culture, as saying he expected the actual stations to be on the air quite quickly, once the licences had been issued, thanks to the Ministry’s efforts to build out the transmitters required itself.
“We have the infrastructure almost, so I think within a year, they will be on the air. We are trying to make it easy for them,” said Majeed, quoted in the paper.
The report also suggests Rotana would have a major advantage over any competitors thanks to its vast stock of Arabic music and artists, which it would leverage by holding back exclusive new tracks for itself, and lording them over the competition for up to 10 days (presumably while pulling faces and going “nyah nyah, nyah nyah” in an annoying voice).
With four licences up for grabs, Rotana should in theory be a shoo-in for at least one of them – but there’s always the wildcard factor of Rotana owner Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal’s political standing in Saudi Arabia, which has been under attack in recent months.
Even so, we’d be surprised if Rotana didn’t nab a licence, along with three other hopefuls. And then Saudi Arabia’s listeners can look forward to lots of quality programming – and lots of really, really crap ads.
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