Positive market stories in a Covid-19 economy

Just as we go to press, Dubai-based distributor Advanced Media has inaugurated its brand-new showroom. After starting its operations at Al Khaleej Centre back in 2003 and gradually expanding from one office to many in the mall, the distributor has made a bold and ambitious move to the more expensive Sheikh Zayed Road.

According to Advanced Media’s owner, Kaveh Farman, business has never been better and has returned to what it was in 2016. He says his sales for RED cameras have gone up. Without enough Komodos in supply, he had a back order of more than a hundred the last time I spoke to him. He says there has also been a lot of interest in DJI drones, ARRI cameras and other production is ramping up in the region.

In the meantime, deployments may have been slower than usual but they have still been executed during this time.

Covid-19, for instance, didn’t stop Bahrain’s Ministry of Information Affairs (MIA) from forging ahead with its broadcast organisations in the GCC have been cautions about investing in new projects, the MIA has gone into full gear with a number of tenders aimed at getting its radio and TV operations ready for a digital future.

After spending a whopping $6.5m on refurbishing its entire radio facility and migrating it to a digital ecosystem as part of phase 1, the Ministry is gearing up for a state-of-the-art news facility, 40% of which is complete. Interestingly, unlike in the past, the MIA is also keen to monetise some parts at its radio facility to rent out to third parties. It also intends to auction frequencies for players who want to run private radio stations.

Likewise, OSN chose this period to revamp its streaming app and MBC has transformed a well-known Adel Ibrahim play from black-and-white to colour, claiming this as a first in the Arab world. Some of these regional case studies will be discussed as part of our virtual BroadcastPro Tech Summit on June 14 and 15. Please do register to attend.