BBC Arabic TV launch this autumn

BBC World Service is to launch its new channel, BBC Arabic TV in autumn 2007, broadcasting in Arabic to 22 countries across the Middle East. The €1.8 million euro installation will be a tapeless facility. It’s the second stab at an Arabic channel for the BBC, its earlier incarnation ran between 1994 and 1996, funded by the Saudi Arabian Mawarid Group.

IBIS playout applications have been chosen for 24 hour news transmission playout from two BBC studios, integrating with Omneon Spectrum media servers, DaletPlus News Suite and an AP ENPS newsrooms system. Each studio will have two IBIS ServerPlay applications. One four channel ServerPlay will be used for the main playout using rundowns sent from ENPS via MOS. The other ServerPlay will be used for backgrounds, loops and any other clip playout required which has not been scheduled via an ENPS rundown. Graphics will be provided by a VizRT system, which will be interfaced to the IBIS ServerPlay using the BBC ‘BigTed’ interface.

The BBC has been broadcasting in Arabic since 1938 and already has a measured audience of over 14 million on Radio and Online across the Middle East and North Africa. The TV service is due to launch in the autumn of 2007. It will be the first publicly funded international television service launched by the BBC. It will be editorially independent in line with BBC’s long-held reputation for impartial, trust-worthy news reporting and analysis. Repeated research from seven capital cities across the Middle East indicates that between 80 and 90% of those surveyed are likely to watch an Arabic Television service from the BBC