MBC to invest more in user-generated content

Dubai: Pan Arab media company MBC is investing in a spate of new initiatives to develop user-generated content over its various media properties.

Following on the heels of popular Web 2.0 offerings such as YouTube, which thrives on videos submitted by viewers, MBC director of new media Ammar Bakkar said the broadcaster would introduce three new projects involving user-generated content.

The company already has a video-sharing service on its Alarabiya.net website, something Bakkar said could be the first of its kind in the Arab world. More recently, Maktoob Group and Ikbis.com began developing video-sharing capabilities, he said.

The first project will be enabling this video content from the web to be viewed via mobile phones.

Bakkar said MBC was in the process of implementing this technology with a Gulf-based telecom operator, but would not say which one. MBC is targeting a November launch date.

Earlier this month MBC partnered with du to launch its mobile programming division, MoBC. Its first products geared for viewing on mobile devices will be four-minute long "mobisodes" edited for Ramadan from MBC shows Tash Ma Tash, Baini Wo Bainak and Land of the Prophets.

MBC also plans to develop a TV programme to showcase viewer-submitted video clips, he said. A TV show based on video clips is in development and is slated for a 2008 launch.

A final initiative would involve people making live video calls via their mobile phones to participate during on-air programmes, Bakkar said. The calls would require 3G phones and MBC is aiming for a December launch date. To implement this technology, MBC is working with a telecom operator, a broadcasting company and a project management firm.

"This would be a first for the Arab world," Bakkar told Gulf News, saying that it was first introduced in the UK.