Tapping into lifestyles of TV gurus

Dubai: TV lifestyle gurus from BBC's popular channels on home and food are coming to Dubai to participate in the Ideal Home show opening tomorrow.

Celebrity chef Antony Worrell Thompson, reputed interior designer Linda Barker from BBC Prime's hit show Changing Rooms, and well known garden designer Diarmuid Gavin, host of Home Front in the Garden will liven up the home show with programmes, demonstrations and competitions.

Ideal Home is being organised by Epoch with BBC Prime (a lifestyle entertainment show) and BBC Food channels and Gulf News as key sponsors. It runs from tomorrow until Saturday at the Airport Expo.

"It is the first ever ideal home show outside Britain for us. It is a natural fit since many of our programmes on BBC Prime and BBC Food are lifestyle programmes, about homes and individuals and lifestyles," said Wayne Dunsford, director of channels, BBC Worldwide.

Lesley Waters of the Ready, Steady, Cook will also be demonstrating her culinary skills.

"It is an excellent opportunity to promote the channel with our distributors such as Orbit, E-vision and Showtime," he said. BBC Prime was launched in the Middle East six years ago and BBC Food was introduced in February this year.

"Both have proved to be very popular, so our participation in this show is our way of putting something back to the market. It gives us a chance to meet our viewers and vice versa," he said.

He expects the show to be both informative and entertaining featuring many competitions as well.

BBC Prime was launched in 1995 in Europe as it had an established cable and channel market. It became available to viewers in the UAE when it attracted the interest of Orbit and E-vision who then launched it in the Middle East bundled with other programmes.

Shortly after that the channel entered South Africa. "A year later BBC Prime became the first international BBC branded channel to start delivering profits back to the parent company," said Dunsford. Since then the channel has expanded its distribution to over 100 countries with 24 million paid subscribers.

Recently it expanded into Asian markets - Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Japan and South Korea.

The BBC Food channel was launched in 2002 in South Africa followed a year later in Scandinavia and in the Middle East this year.

"Food is something everybody relates to and our programmes cover a wide range and variety featuring international food and recipes," said Dunsford.

It will soon launch a series on the British queen's chefs called ?All the Queen's Cooks' which promises to be interesting, he said.

Where do the channels go from here?

New genres of channels are being planned taking into account customer feedback.

The focus is also on expanding further in Asian market.

The biggest single market today is South Africa, followed by Scandinavia and then the Middle East, said Dunsford.

EVENT SCHEDULE

Venue: Dubai Airport Expo

Thursday, December 15
Doors open 11am to 7pm

Friday, December 16
Doors open 2pm to 8pm

Saturday, December 17
Doors open from 11am to 7pm