The history of terrestrial TV channels in the Arab World goes back to the early 1960s. Until the booming era of free to air satellite TV, terrestrial TV was the main source of entertainment and information for people in the Arab World. Local terrestrial TV stations are still alive in the region, but regulations and market dynamics have ensured that -except in a few countries- the number of terrestrial TV stations did not grow in the past few years.
There are 138 terrestrial TV stations broadcasting in nineteen Arab countries. Palestine, Iraq and Egypt lead in the number of terrestrial TV stations, constituting 50.7% of total terrestrial TV channels in the Arab World. The majority of Palestine’s and Iraq’s terrestrial TV channels are privately owned and they constitute 86.2% of total private terrestrial TV channels in the Arab World. Egypt has the largest number of government owned terrestrial TV channels.
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A new report, “Terrestrial TV in the Arab World December 2010″ was released to the Arab Advisors Group on 23 December 2010. The 25-page report provides a detailed analysis of the terrestrial TV channels in the 19 Arab countries of Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAE and Yemen.
“Arab Advisors Group’s analysis reveals that the vast majority of the nineteen covered countries still have full government ownership of the operational terrestrial TV channels,” Miss Noura Abdulhadi, Arab Advisors Senior Research Analyst commented. “Out of the 19 countries covered in this report, only Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon and Tunisia have operational private terrestrial TV channels. Libya, Morocco and Sudan have terrestrial TV channels that are jointly owned by the government and the private sector,” Ms. Abdulhadi added.
