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MBC Group ( ar, مجموعة إم بي سي), is a Saudi
media conglomerate A media conglomerate, media group, or media institution is a company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises, such as music, television, radio, publishing, motion pictures, theme parks, or the Internet. According to the ...
based in the Middle East and North Africa region. Launched in
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
in 1991, the company moved to its headquarters to
Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...
in 2002 then moved to
Riyadh Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the R ...
in 2022. MBC Group operates over 17 free-to-air satellite TV channels, and a
video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...
service (
Shahid ''Shaheed'' ( ,  ,   ; pa, ਸ਼ਹੀਦ) denotes a martyr in Islam. The word is used frequently in the Quran in the generic sense of "witness" but only once in the sense of "martyr" (i.e. one who dies for his faith); ...
). MBC was the first broadcaster to provide a satellite-based free-to-air 24-hour
television broadcasting A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay television providers. Until the mid-1 ...
network across the
Arab world The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western A ...
. The Group's current chairman is Waleed bin Ibrahim Al Ibrahim. Sam Barnett returned as MBC Group CEO in December 2020 after a one-year departure. MBC's television arm, MBC TV, broadcasts via
Eutelsat Eutelsat S.A. is a French satellite operator. Providing coverage over the entire European continent, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas, it is the world's third-largest satellite operator in terms of revenues. Eutelsat's satellit ...
,
Arabsat The Arab Satellite Communications Organization (often abbreviated as Arabsat) is a communications satellite operator in the Arab World, headquartered in the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Arabsat was created to deliver satellite-based, public and ...
and
Nilesat Nilesat (; , ''or'' ) is an Egyptian company and the name of a series of Egyptian communications satellites. It was established in 1996 with the purpose of operating Egyptian satellites and their associated mission control center and ground st ...
satellites. MBC has more than 1,800 staff. In recent years MBC has been hit with major rounds of financial cuts, leading to 150 layoffs and major production cuts. These cuts were driven in part due to advertising not covering production costs and the failure to acquire exclusive rights to the Saudi league. As of 2011 MBC reported 165 million viewers.


TV channels and services

All MBC channels are
free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the FTA Receiver, appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring ...
except for the HD channels and MBC Plus Variety. They are available on OSN, STC TV & STC TV Home IPTV and my-HD satellite service. They are all Pay-TV service providers in the Middle East.


MBC 1

Launched in 1991 as the first independent pan-Arab channel, MBC 1 is the first free-to-air private satellite channel.


MBC 2

The first free-to-air movie channel in the Arab world, MBC 2 offers a 24-hour non-stop stream of Hollywood movies, from blockbusters to classics and international films. This channel is censored to not show violence and
pornography Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults,
, including deep kiss,
fetishism A fetish (derived from the French , which comes from the Portuguese , and this in turn from Latin , 'artificial' and , 'to make') is an object believed to have supernatural powers, or in particular, a human-made object that has power over oth ...
, eroticas, and
nudity Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. The loss of body hair was one of the physical characteristics that marked the biological evolution of modern humans from their hominin ancestors. Adaptations related to ...
—all forms have been cut.


MBC 3

MBC 3 is a children's entertainment channel which delivers a programming mix of children's education and entertainment for Arab kids aged between three and thirteen. MBC3 also airs a locally produced reality show for kids, ''Eish Safari'', which recruits young Arab kids and sets them on a month-long trip of mental and physical challenges. Recently, the channel produced a new game show called "Graduate in a Day", similar in concept to "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" for children and their parents.


MBC 4

MBC 4 is aimed primarily at Middle Eastern women and offers a broad mixture of US and UK shows, comedy and drama series, as well as gameshows, magazines, plus news and current affairs programming, in addition to Turkish, Pakistani and Mexican dramas dubbed into Arabic. It also airs original Arabic programs.


MBC 5

A channel dedicated to family entertainment which was launched on 21 September 2019. Targeting Maghrébines countries generally, and Moroccan viewers specifically.


MBC Action

A channel that targets young Arab males. It delivers Western series, movies, action reality shows as well as Japanese anime and sports programs. Some of its prime time shows include ''The Mentalist'', ''The Vampire Diaries'', ''Fringe'', ''Supernatural'', ''V'', WWE and ''True Blood''. The channel recently which is a weekly "magazine" format show about cars, similar to ''Top Gear'', which they also broadcast the British and American versions of the BBC's Top Gear.


MBC Drama

One of the latest additions to the Group, which was officially launched on 27 November 2010. It is a family channel, with 24/7 Arabic drama series. The launch coincides with the Group's 20th anniversary, and marks our 10th channel launch. The channel runs a variety of different dramas: Egyptian, Syrian, Bedouin, Gulf And Kuwaiti dramas that are 1st runs and exclusive runs. MBC Drama is distinguished by the two additional repeats throughout the day, offering its viewers the choice of time, based on their various lifestyles and viewership trends. Do not confuse this channel with MBC's subscription-based channel
MBC+ Drama The MBC+ Drama was a free-to-air television channel owned by MBC Group. It was a joint venture between OSN and MBC Group. It was a 24-hour Arabic channel that offers a range of Arabic series ''First on TV'' to OSN subscribers starting 1 Febr ...
.


MBC Max

The MBC Group's second 24-hour movie channel which caters to a younger audience. The channel airs Western, comedy, action, romance and drama movies as well as classic.


MBC Bollywood

MBC launched MBC Bollywood on 26 October 2013. MBC Bollywood is MBC Group's 14th channel, and it is aimed to air 24 hours of
hindi cinema Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...
, either subtitled in Arabic, targeting South Asian audiences, and Arab Bollywood enthusiasts.


MBC Persia

This channel was launched on 9 July 2008 and provides
Persian language Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and ...
contents. The channel is dedicated to Iranian viewers and screens films and programs around the world.


MBC Masr

MBC launched MBC Masr on 9 November 2012, and it is a division of MBC studios situated in Egypt and targeting Egyptian viewers.


MBC Masr 2

This channel was the two hours time-shifted service, but now it's a second channel for Egypt and has a different content.


MBC FM and Panorama FM

These radio stations are the MBC Group's Arabic radio stations in Saudi that broadcast music, talk shows, competitions and local coverage of events and news. MBC FM plays local and Gulf music while Panorama FM delivers contemporary Arabic and Western tunes.


Wanasah

A 24-hour music channel that targets the Arab youth, mainly in
Eastern Arabia Eastern Arabia, historically known as al-Baḥrayn ( ar, البحرين) until the 18th century, is a region stretched from Basra to Khasab along the Persian Gulf coast and included parts of modern-day Bahrain, Kuwait, Eastern Saudi Arabia, Unite ...
. The channel offers music videos, concerts, music & lifestyle programs as well as series.


MBC.net

One of the Arabic entertainment web portals in the region with a mix of sports, entertainment, movies and music content, along with its user interactivity and social networking features.


Shahid

The first free "video on demand" service in the Arab region, with the biggest streaming library of Arabic content. Shahid is the largest premium VOD service in the world outside of China, the US, and India. Shahid offers a catalogue of MBC's own shows, as well as dubbed or subtitled foreign content. In January 2020, it was announced Shahid partnered with Disney and Fox to bring more than 3,000 hours of content, including Star Wars, Marvel, and such Disney classics as Frozen. The Service also announced 9 Arabic originals.


MBC Hope

MBC Hope was launched in June 2013 to handle the consumer social relationship elements of MBC. This initiative launched campaigns such as "Syrians without an address" and "Stars on board". In 2017 MBC Hope was expanded to
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
, with a goal to support female entrepreneurs.


MBC+ Variety

It is a 24-hour entertainment channel that airs Western variety content. The channel is now exclusively on Arabsat, My-HD platform.


Controversy

In 2017 a number of owners and board members of MBC were summoned to
Riyadh Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the R ...
where they were arrested, accused of corruption, and locked in the Ritz-Carlton. These moves came following years of the
Saudi Crown Prince The crown prince of Saudi Arabia is the second-most important position in Saudi Arabia, second to the King, and is his designated successor. Currently, the Crown Prince assumes power with the approval of the Allegiance Council after he is nomi ...
attempting to purchase the media company. After 83 days the company's chief owner Waleed al-Ibrahim was released. A "senior MBC executive" was cited by Arabian Business stating that Waleed al-Ibrahim was found innocent of any wrongdoing. In 2007 MBC began airing its first Turkish soap opera dubbed into another language. Over the next few years these programs became a major success for MBC, with over 85 million viewing the finale of '' Gümüş''. In 2018, MBC moved to remove all Turkish programming from their channels, no official reason were given. In 2019, MBC Masr came under scrutiny for its use of blackface in comedy programming. Popular Egyptian comedian Shaimaa Seif has done a number of programs on MBC using
blackface Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used predominantly by non-Black people to portray a caricature of a Black person. In the United States, the practice became common during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereo ...
and stereotypes for humor. Some have raised concern of the amount of American advertisements on MBC channels, with some studies suggesting over 50% of advertising time is devoted towards American products such as those from
Johnson & Johnson Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is an American multinational corporation founded in 1886 that develops medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and consumer packaged goods. Its common stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the company i ...
,
Kellogg's The Kellogg Company, doing business as Kellogg's, is an American multinational food manufacturing company headquartered in Battle Creek, Michigan, United States. Kellogg's produces cereal and convenience foods, including crackers and toaste ...
, and
PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the food and beverage market. It oversees the manuf ...
. These critics state that this leads to cultural imperialism and erodes at the native cultures of areas in the Middle East and North Africa. In a study focused on Algerian consumer preferences, it was found that these consumers were drawn to American advertisements and products advertised on MBC. This in turn led Algerian companies to mimic the advertising style and aesthetic of American companies.


Use of technology

In 2010, MBC Max provided the ability to watch English movies with Arabic voices, along with watching English movies (English voices) with or without Arabic subtitles. In July 2011, MBC launched 7 of its channels in HD which includes
MBC 1 MBC 1 may refer to: * MBC 1 (Mauritian TV channel), a TV channel in Mauritius by the Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation * MBC1 (Middle Eastern and North African TV channel) MBC 1 is a free-to-air pan-Arab general television channel. Satel ...
, MBC 2,
MBC 3 MBC 3 is a free-to-air children's channel launched on 8 December 2004, and appeals to children under the age of 15. All foreign television animated programs have been dubbed into Arabic. The channel also produces its own original programmes. It ...
,
MBC 4 MBC 4 is a television channel in the Middle East. It was launched on 1 February 2005 at 5:00 P.M. (GMT) and is owned by the Middle East Broadcasting Center. MBC 4 airs international programmes with Arabic language subtitles. Programming is ta ...
,
MBC Action MBC Action (stylized as ''MBC'ACTION'') is a free-to-air television channel that MBC Group’s action-packed channel that targets young Arabic males. It delivers the best in high-octane Western series, movies and action. shows and sports and ...
,
MBC Max MBC Max (stylized as MBC MAX) is a free-to-air movie channel that broadcasts non-stop Hollywood films and it is an alternative to its sister channel MBC 2. MBC Max HD was launched on 1 July 2011. History The channel was launched as a test b ...
, and MBC Drama. These HD versions of these channels are encrypted using
Conax Conax develops television encryption, conditional access and content security for digital television. Conax provide CAS technology to pay TV operators in 85 countries. The company has offices in Norway (headquarters), Russia, Germany, Brazil, th ...
while SD are FTA. In 2017
Snapchat Snapchat is an American multimedia instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of Snapchat is that pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time before the ...
expanded its "Discover" feature to provide content from regional providers including MBC.


Criticism

On 17 September 2013, the
Anti-Defamation League The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), formerly known as the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, is an international Jewish non-governmental organization based in the United States specializing in civil rights law. It was founded in late Septe ...
criticized the network for using a clip of the 2009 film ''
Inglourious Basterds ''Inglourious Basterds'' is a 2009 war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger and Mélanie Laurent. The film tells an alter ...
'' in which the Adolf Hitler character was speaking to other Nazis, with the subtitles replaced with advertisements for the network. The League said "The use of such imagery contributes to the trivialization of and desensitization to the unparalleled horrors of the Holocaust."


References


External links

* {{Authority control Middle East Broadcasting Center 1991 establishments in the United Kingdom Mass media companies established in 1991 Arab mass media Direct broadcast satellite services Television networks