Dubai Media City

Dubai Media City

Type	Free Economic Zone
Founded	Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum
Headquarters	Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Owner(s)	Dubai Holding

Main Buildings at Dubai Media City

Dubai Media City on 1 May 2007

Dubai Media City (DMC), part of Dubai Holding, is a tax-free zone within Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It has been built by the Dubai government to boost UAE's media foothold, and has become a regional hub for media organizations including news agencies, publishing, online media, advertising, production, and broadcast facilities. The groundwork for infrastructure (such as fiber optic cables) was already laid for firms to set up easily and its visa and operational procedures are relaxed for firms operating within DMC.

Dubai Media City is the hub for the media industry in the GCC and Middle East, with more than 1,300 companies registered under the Free Zone, from where they serve the entire region. It also houses International Cricket Council, the governing body of the game of Cricket in the world. Earlier, before 2005, it was situated in London.

Censorship

On 16 November 2007, the Dubai Government ordered Tecom (implemented by Du Samacom, by disabling their SDI & ASI streams) to shut down the Pakistani independent and private channels Geo News TV and ARY One World on the demand of the military regime of Pakistan led by General Pervez Musharraf. Later policy makers in Dubai permitted these channels to air their entertainment programs, but news, current affairs and political analysis were forbidden to be aired. However later the conditions were removed but marked difference has been observed in the coverage of Geo TV and ARY OneWorld. On 13 April 2008, du EITC - the second telecommunications operator in the UAE- announced that all of its traffic would be routed via the UAE's censorship proxy which blocks access to any content deemed 'inappropriate'. While Dubai Internet City sells itself as a business-friendly environment with excellent connectivity, the reality is it is heavily censored. On January 30, 2008 an incident revealed the size of problem, when fibre optic cables between Palermo, Italy, and Alexandria, Egypt were said to have been damaged. There was a significant slowdown of communications. The UAE telecommunications company and DMC’s internet service provider du was one of the worst hit. Since du has a monopoly in the Free Zones, customers had no alternative connectivity during the outage. On 19 December 2008 the three submarine cables between Italy and Egypt have been damaged again, disrupting Internet and telephone communications between UAE and Europe as reported by Bloomberg.

List of companies/organisations

The list below is incomplete.

Sports

• International Cricket Council Headquarters

News Agencies

• APTN
• Reuters

Television stations

• CNN International
• BBC World News
• Bloomberg L.P.
• Al Arabiya
• CNBC Arabiya
• Orbit Showtime
• Middle East Broadcasting Center
• Dubai Media Inc. News Center
• Infinity TV
• Persian Music Channel — PMC
• Ten Sports — Taj Television Ltd
• Turner Broadcasting System^[1] - MENA region headquarters
• ARY Digital Network
• Geo TV
• Al Aan TV
• City 7 TV^[2]
• Decision Makers TV
• Arabian Travel TV
• Al Majd TV
• Zee Aflam

Radio stations

• Radio Sawa (formerly Voice of America)
• [Arabian Radio Network]]

Websites

• Moheet
• Kipp Report
• AMEinfo.com
• Kalam TV
• Edarabia
• Eurosport Arabia^[3]
• Arabic Information Technology News Portal
• Dubizzle.com^[4][5]

Newspapers

• The Financial Times
• The Economist Group (MENA Region Headquarters)
• The Times (UAE edition)
• The Sunday Times (UAE edition)
• Awraq newspaper

Magazines

• MEED
• Lavish Magazine
• Rolling Stone (Middle East edition)
• Esquire (Middle East edition)
• Sayidaty
• MONEYworks
• Gulf Marketing Review^[6]
• L'Officiel (Middle East edition)

Advertising Agencies

• Best Focus (UAE/Dubai/Abu Dhabi/GULF advertising agency)
• Pan Arabian Network (MENA region's headquarters - www.panarabiannetwork.com)
• Leo Burnett (MENA region's headquarters)
• Starcom Mediavest Group (MENA region's headquarters)^[7]
• Flip - Innovation architects (Flip headquarters)
• DoLeeP Studios
• Grafdom
• North55

Event Management Agencies

• BrikCom India Consultancy and Event Management Pvt. Ltd.
• Vibe Middle East
• Relay Experiential Marketing

Others

• Economist Corporate Network (MENA Region Headquarters)
• EMAP (MENA region headquarter)
• Oliver Wyman
• Capgemini
• Sony^[8]
• Visa Inc. (Middle East headquarters)

Towers

There will be over 84 towers in the Dubai Media City.^[9]

Mövenpick Dubai Pearl Dubai Pearl Hotel Tower 1 Dubai Pearl Hotel Tower 2 Omnix North Tower Omnix South Tower Dubai Pearl Dana Tower Dubai Pearl Lulwa Tower Dubai Pearl Mahara Tower Jumana Tower Dubai Pearl Al Kazim Tower 1 Al Kazim Tower 2 The One Tower Al Salam Tecom Tower Al Attar Skyspiral AAM Tower Sidra Tower ARY Digital Tower Media 1 Tower Dubai Jewel Tower Shatha Tower

Al Yassat Tower Dalma Tower Concord Tower I-Rise Al Sufouh Tower 1 Al Sufouh Tower 2 Shaiba Tower 1 Shaiba Tower 2 Ahmed Ali Abdullah Al Abdullah Tower Al Thuraya Tower 2 Emirates Airlines Staff Accommodation Ahmad Ali Abdulla Al Abdulla Building Al Thuraya Tower 1 Executive Heights Grosvenor Business Tower Madison Residency Telal's Tower Smart Heights Media Rotana Hotel Tower 1 Media Rotana Hotel Tower 2

Millennium Towers Hotel Rashid Mohammed Al Mazroui Tower Millennium Towers Residence Red Tower Ayad Hassan Bin Habshi Building Mr. Mohammad Bin Hassan Al Muhana Building Adel Al Hussaini Building Tebyan Clarity Tower Mohammed Ahmed Dadabhai Building Al Shahd Tower Oasis Residence Al Abdullah Tower Al Noor Tower Abdul Jaleel Mahdy Al Esmawy Building Khalid Salem Ahmed Basuliman Building Mazoon Hotel Apartments Al Hoton Building Cayan Business Center The Icon Abdulrahman Mohamed Taher Mohamed Wali Tower Leader Tower Saleh Bin Lahej Building Ramee Guestline Hotel Apartments Business Central Towers

See also

• List of media outlets in Dubai Media City
• Radio and television channels of Dubai

References

1. ^ "10 October launch for Cartoon Network Arabic". Rapid TV News. 2010-10-07. http://www.rapidtvnews.com/index.php/201010078168/10-october-launch-for-cartoon-network-arabic.html. Retrieved 2011-02-09. 
2. ^ http://www.desertspeak.com/viewtopic.php?t=431
3. ^ http://www.ameinfo.com/215726.html
4. ^ www.dubizzle.com
5. ^ http://www.ameinfo.com/news/Company_News/D/Dubizzle_com/
6. ^ http://www.adcbuae.com/Dubai/Dubai_News_and_Media/Magazines/127316-12599.html
7. ^ http://www.smvgroup.com/offices/dubai.html
8. ^ http://www.dubaifaqs.com/dubai-media-city.php
9. ^ Dubai Media City List Emporis.com

External links

• Dubai Media City official website
• Corporate Video on Dubai Media City
• Panoramic view of portion of Dubai Media City
• Dubai Media City Directory
• Dubai Media City on Wikimapia
• List of radio stations in Dubai and the UAE

Coordinates: 25°5′34″N 55°9′10″E / 25.09278°N 55.15278°E / 25.09278; 55.15278