ABU DHABI, March 9th, 2010: Fox International Channels ("FIC"), a wholly owned subsidiary of News Corporation, announced on the eve of the Abu Dhabi Media Summit that it has formed a strategic partnership with Abu Dhabis twofour54 across three significant projects. The move highlights FICs commitment to Abu Dhabi as well as reinforcing twofour54s commitment to position Abu Dhabi as a regional centre of excellence in content creation. The three collaboration projects are as follows:FIC is headquartering the Middle East operations of its global online ad network business, .FOX (pronounced dot-fox), in Abu Dhabi in co-operation with twofour54. With its global footprint, .FOX is already the 2nd largest online media provider in the United Arab Emirates (with a network that reaches more than 50% of all online users in the territory each month) and the 3rd largest in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. From the new regional headquarters in Abu Dhabi, .FOX will look to rapidly enter into representation agreements with local sites in the region to further expand the reach and relevance of its network. In addition, .FOX will build a sales organization focused on selling local and global online solutions to clients across the region. .FOX has more than 20 offices around the world and over 150 employees and is present in every important market in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia The network specializes in online video, display, performance and branded advertising solutions.
Secondly, FIC (through its documentary production arm NHNZ) and twofour54 are also collaborating on the production of a high end HD and 3D documentary, which will be available for broadcast television, cinema and museums. NHNZ will set up a production office in Abu Dhabi, from where it will manage Middle East specific productions, with an emphasis on building up the 3D production capabilities and expertise. The NHNZ production office will offer skill training and workshops to help develop Arab talent and production infrastructure. It will also look to develop projects with local producers for international broadcast. NHNZ, which is based in New Zealand with offices in Washington DC, Brisbane, Sydney, Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing and Johannesburg, produces some of the most popular non-fiction programming in the World which it supplies to the leading broadcasters such as A&E, Discovery, National Geographic and Fox. The setting up of the NHNZ office in Abu Dhabi follows the launch of National Geographic Abu Dhabi, a dedicated factual entertainment free to air channel for the region, with the entire programming dubbed in Arabic. This reiterates the commitment from National Geographic to bring world class factual entertainment programming to the region. Lastly, FIC and twofour54 have reached an agreement whereby FIC will move the playout and operations of some of its channels available in the Middle East from Hong Kong and other locations to a new centralized facility in Abu Dhabi operated by twofour54. These facilities are fully HD capable, based on tapeless workflows and represent the current state of the art in channel operations. FICs free to air satellite channels in the region include the National Geographic Abu Dhabi Channel, that was launched in partnership with Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC) in July 2009 and is fully dubbed in Arabic as well as Fox Movies (launched May 2008) and Fox Series (launched December 2008) channels launched in partnership with Rotana Media Services. FIC also operates nine pay-TV channels in the region including National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Adventure, National Geographic Channel HD, Star Movies, Star World, Baby TV, Channel V, and Fox Sports as well as representing the Fox News and Sky News channels in the region. Speaking in Abu Dhabi about the strategic partnership, David Haslingden, CEO of Fox International Channels, said: "This inaugural Abu Dhabi Media Summit is the ideal forum for us to announce this exciting collaboration between FIC and twofour54, and to underline the important role that such strategic alliances have in the development of the enormous potential of the regions media sector". Mr Ward Platt, President of Fox International Channels, Asia Pacific and Middle East also in Abu Dhabi for the announcements said: "twofour54 has established itself at the forefront of the regions leading providers of media and entertainment services and it is actively helping to establish Abu Dhabi as a regional media hub. We are thrilled to have partnered with such an impressive home-grown regional media player. As we seek to play our part in the ongoing development of the UAEs capital as a media centre for the Middle East our relationship with twofour54 will be a fundamental advantage."Speaking on behalf of twofour54, CEO Tony Orsten added, "The worlds media industry is increasingly focusing on the MENA region. This announcement reinforces our vision, which is to establish Abu Dhabi as a regional centre of excellence for the Arabic media industry, and adds to the media ecosystem we have created. We are excited about partnering with FIC in their efforts to build their globally admired brands, launch innovative media solutions and enhance the level of factual content production within the region." FOX International Channels (FIC) is News Corporations international multi-media business. We develop, produce and distribute 183 wholly- and majority-owned entertainment, factual, sports and movie channels across Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa, in 35 languages. These networks and their related mobile, non-linear and high-definition extensions, reach over 300 million subscribing households (875 million cumulative) worldwide. We also operate a global online advertising unit, .FOX (pronounced "dot-fox") specialized in online video and display, and four TV production houses. In operation since: August 14, 1993. twofour54 is an Abu Dhabi government initiative and an integral part of its 2030 plan, which seeks to diversify the Emirates economy and establish the Emirate as the cultural capital of the Middle East. twofour54s vision is to establish a sustainable Arabic media and entertainment content creation industry in Abu Dhabi; a regional centre of excellence which is internationally renowned. The aim is to stimulate creative and professional partnerships in the television, radio, film, publishing, online, mobile, music, gaming and animation industries.Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2010.
