Sky News Arabia

It’s now been a year since the first trips in mid-2010 to Abu Dhabi in our search for the HQ of Sky News Arabia, and things are starting to take shape. During the initial months we looked at numerous locations throughout Abu Dhabi that we hoped would be suitable for this colossal task ahead of us. We eventually settled on the facility you see in the photos here.

It’s an existing studio complex, right in the heart of Abu Dhabi, and over the past 24 months it’s been the home of numerous television productions, from Live English Premier League sports sets, to a giant playground for a children’s TV show. In order to transform this from a regular studio, to a 24/7 newsroom, we needed to make a few changes!

Working with local teams in Abu Dhabi, our initial concept drawings of what we needed to achieve are beginning to come to life. We engaged with architects, applied for permits, stepped through numerous approvals processes, and finally at a point where we can let the construction teams get on with the job. We’ve kept the existing core of the studio, and shortly will punch some giant holes in the wall, allowing access to the multimedia newsroom, craft edit suites, and live graphics production teams.

In addition to this, the foundations are already taking shape for our 3 floor extension to the complex, this will eventually house everything from our journalists, correspondents, presenters, editors, support teams, and all our other operational staff right through to the Studio Gallery, and our News Operations Centre.

I think it would be wonderful as the next Sky News UK studio. But with the Murdoch spin-off coming soon, I can't see another studio revamp for a long time.

As easy as it is to be Anti-Murdoch considering the general perception of Sky is they are owned solely by the man I've no major issue with News Limited taking over all control, and to be honest no real concern with Sky News being owned by the same company who owns The Sun and The Times. Perhaps that is naïve, but I think the "spun-off" solution doesn't really benefit the public as a whole.

While the new channels missed out on the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, as well as uprisings in other Arab countries, executives say they are confident that demand for news will continue to grow.

“We believe that these stories that are happening are not a one-off,” said Nart Bouran, general manager and head of news at Sky Arabia. “News is news, and I’m sure we’ll have plenty of it next year.”

Sky Arabia, which plans to start broadcasting next spring from Abu Dhabi, will have 13 news bureaus across the region, and will share resources with Sky News of Britain, he said.

But Mr. Bouran, the Sky arabia general manager, said there was room for new channels like Sky Arabia.

“I don’t know why people are saying there’s too many channels,” he said. “A local channel in Libya is going to focus on Libya. There’s still a market for pan-Arab channels. They will complement each other.”

Though Sky Arabia has links to the Abu Dhabi government, the channel will be run as a for-profit venture, with financing commitments from each partner for “a sufficient period of time to allow us to stand on our feet and be commercially viable,” Mr. Bouran said.