The Saudi Research and Marketing Group ( SRMG), a leading publishing house in the GCC region, has signed a contract with Bloomberg to acquire a license to launch Bloomberg Arabiya. The new multi-platform news network would satisfy the growing needs of business and financial news in Arabic. The exact starting date of the project has not been announced yet.
According to a statement by the Saudi Stock Exchange, SPRMG has paid nearly 33.75 million riyals (USD 9 million) for a 10-year-license. The media group also publishes several Arabic and English language outlets, among which Asharq Al Awsat, Arab News, and Aleqtisadiah. Now it is planning to start a 24-hour television and radio network, as well as a dedicated digital platform under the ”Bloomberg Al Arabiya” brand. In addition to that, the company would also publish the Bloomberg Businessweek magazine in Arabic. It would also organize conferences and live events series.
The new Bloomberg Al-Arabiya would enter into direct competition with market leaders such as Reuters and AFP, as well as with TV-channels such as Al Arabiya and CNBC Arabia that also produce Arabic-language content. The new service would provide news and analysis on companies, markets, economies, and politics, shaping the Middle East.
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The headquarters of Bloomberg Al-Arabiya have not been announced yet, but it will be in the Arabian Gulf, confirmed from SRMG. At the beginning, the local management would get support from Bloomberg.
Prince Bader bin Abdullah Al-Saud, chairman of SRMG commented:
We are very pleased with this promising partnership with Bloomberg. In addition to the many business opportunities this collaboration brings, we believe the partnership will greatly enhance the media landscape in our region.
According to Michael Bloomberg, the founder of Bloomberg, the agreement with such an important region as the Middle East and SRMG would allow his company deliver top-notch financial content to a critical audience of local business influencers and decision makers.
Justin B. Smith, the chief executive of Bloomberg Media Group added that the agreement was a part of the corporate strategy to team up with leading news providers in markets ”that have compelling economic growth stories’‘.
Sources familiar with the matter reminded that that is the second time when Bloomberg enters into partnership with a regional media. Bloomberg previously worked with Prince Alwaleed bin Talal on the Al-Arab, an Arabic language news project, but it was closed in 2015. At that time, Bloomberg had to deliver 5 hours of news a day.