Love it or hate it, reality TV is here to stay. Arab media has jumped on the bandwagon that has revolutionized the global television industry, and is sweeping the advertising, telecom and consumer industries along in its wake. Despite misgivings about the suitability of applying Western concepts, such as Star Academy, to a region characterized by deep conservative and religious tendencies, the shows have succeeded in attracting record audience ratings from the word go. As it enters its third year on Arab TV screens, the industry is charging full steam ahead, developing new concepts, increasing production budgets and cashing in on multiple revenue streams. But will the new phenomenon of reality TV survive the pressure of constantly reinventing itself to maintain audience interest, whilst keeping conservative critics at bay?
A star is born
A long-standing feature on Western television screens, reality TV in the modern sense of the concept was first introduced in the United States in 1973 with the PBS series An American Family. Twenty years on, the genre gained mainstream popularity through MTV’s Real World, generating a slew of variations on the theme: reality game shows, reality dating shows, reality celebrity shows etc. Reality TV rapidly found a niche, catering to people’s attraction to voyeurism, the cult of celebrity, the desire for a new form of entertainment and the ever-growing opportunities for interactivity with audiences offered by modern communication technology.
By spring of 2004, 12 of the top 20 shows among 18 to 49 year olds that aired on American broadcast networks were unscripted, according to the LA Times. With viewing figures for shows such as The Apprentice, averaging close to 20 million, advertisers were no longer in two minds about associating themselves with the controversial programs. The shows are returning season after season and franchises are being created, giving reality TV both acceptance and predictability – two mouthwatering characteristics for advertisers. For CBS’ Survivor, 30 second advertising slots now go for over $400,000, putting it in the mega-league of top grossing programs.
From Real World to Miss Lebanon 2003
By spring of 2003, reality TV hit the Middle East. Future TV bought the license for Pop Idol from the British company Fremantle Media, turning it into Super Star, LBC launched its own concept: a reality TV beauty pageant, in the form of Miss Lebanon 2003. Both shows were instant hits, drawing viewers by the millions. For the finale of the first Super Star, 4.8 million viewers throughout the Arab world voted for their favorite contestant.
“In a rare moment in the history of the Arab media, a sense of influence and involvement has been given to the people, where their votes determine the outcome of the show,” Abed Al Rahman Pharaon, an analyst with Arab Advisors Media, commented in a report on the program. “Consequently the popularity of this show has been amplified, and viewer numbers has augmented tremendously.”
The success bred followers: franchises for Star Academy and Survivor were soon bought up by LBCI, the former going on to surpass the popularity of the network’s pioneering reality program.
“People in the Arab world love singing and dancing, which has made Star Academy the most popular show by far,” explained Ronny Jazzar, manager of AVM, which handles advertising for LBCI in Lebanon, and the producer of Miss Lebanon 2003.
The finale of Star Academy in February 2004 was watched by 48.8% of the Lebanese television audience.
“It’s been successful in part because of its social revolution aspect: boys and girls living under the same roof is very new by Arab standards – it gives it an image of coolness and tolerance,” said Naji Baz, manager of Star System, which handles the post-show careers of the Star Academy contestants and the sales of accessories related to the show. “Furthermore, for a show like Star Academy, every country has its own national champion, so you get the ‘international soccer effect,’ with everyone watching to cheer for their country’s representative.”
The revolutionary aspect of the shows has been significantly dampened so as to suit the social codes of 22 Arab countries. In Star Academy, men and women are lodged in separate areas, with segregated bedrooms and bathrooms. Alcohol, cigarettes and public displays of affection are out of bounds, and proper attire is de rigueur. It’s still a far cry from the steamy jacuzzi scenes and late-night bedroom escapades familiar to Western television audiences.
Arab producers are also coming up with their own concepts, which are being sold back to the West. The upcoming CEO on the Infinity channel, which pitches 10 budding entrepreneurs against each other in a bid to win $250,000 to fund their own business venture, has already sold its franchise to Indian producers, and is in negotiations with producers in Australia and the United States, according to executive producer Ziad Batal from Media Group.
As Batal sees it, reality shows have now become a fixed feature on the Arab scene. “Everybody is getting on the bandwagon, because these shows have proven themselves,” he said. “They are not a fad anymore, they have become the norm.”
High production costs
Part of the initial appeal of reality TV for Western television networks was the low production costs entailed. Recruiting a group of odinary people to live together under camera surveillance, as in Big Brother, was a low budget operation. Yet with growing competition and increasing airtime share, the production costs of the shows have rapidly risen.
“Production costs of reality shows might have been cheaper than scripted shows initially, since you don’t need to pay actors for example, but they are rapidly becoming expensive,” said Batal. “The CEO show is costing approximately $100,000 per episode – we’re incurring a lot of costs through all the activities we are getting the participants to partake in, but we are not skimping on costs – we’ll pay what we need to in order to produce quality TV.”
In the case of CEO, the producers of the show, Media Group, and the network, are splitting the costs. For LBC and Future TV, production is generally made in-house, and the costs are carried by the networks. Star Academy and Survivor cost between 10 to 15 times more than LBC’s other programs. Super Star is incurring a similar dent in Future TV’s budget.
“Between the franchise license, the royalties, the huge production costs involved in casting all over the Arab world, flying all the contestants in and hosting them for five months … we are looking at over $2 million in total production costs for the 19 episodes of Super Star,” said Claude Sabbagha, marketing manager for FMS, Future TV’s advertising agent.
Yet surpassing the increasing production costs are the growing revenues. Advertising alone covers production costs in their entirety. “We are really making a lot in advertising revenues – they exceed the production costs of $2 million by far, we are talking revenues in the multimillion dollar range here,” said Sabbagha, who was not alone in his reluctance to divulge total revenues.
An advertising magnet
Success on a regional scale, continuing hype and a capacity to target the demographic category of choice for many brands has advertisers signing up in droves. “Star Academy has been a success because it is reaching the younger generation,” said Jazzar. “It’s the first time Arab TV successfully targets the 15 to 25 age bracket, which is not reached easily.”
“All the major brands are willing to pay for spot advertising on these shows,” said a media manager from an international advertising agency in Beirut. “They follow the shows’ ratings and see that they do well.” Rising alongside audience ratings are the prices of the advertising slots for the shows. Although not in the same league as US rates, 30 second ad slots for Arab reality TV run from $7,000 to up to $20,000.
“Advertisers are now willing to pay five to 10 times more than what they did initially,” said Batal.
Yet the real big spenders come in the form of sponsors, be they exclusive or co-sponsors. Exclusive sponsorships with the top international shows come in the form of regional package deals and remain the preserve of major international brands.
Lipton was the exclusive sponsor for Super Star during the first two seasons of the show, a contract Ford has now taken over. Star Academy was initially sponsored by Nescafe, and now has Pepsi as its sole sponsor.
“Sponsoring gets really expensive, and as it entails regional deals, they are only really worthwhile for major brands that are sold internationally,” said Karim Mansour, account manager for Grey Worlwide, which represents Pampa, one of Miss Lebanon 2003’s main sponsors. “For a product such as Pampa, entering a multi-million dollar deal to sponsor a show such as Star Academy is not worth doing, seeing how our product can’t be found in Saudi Arabia, Yemen and some other Arab countries. For a product like Pepsi, which has the biggest market share of carbonated drinks in the region, it definitely is.”
Both the television networks and the brands remain tightlipped about the size of the sponsorship deals, yet industry insiders evaluate the Lipton deal at $1 million for the first season and $5 million for the second season of Super Star. The Pepsi deal has been estimated at $4 million. Other products choose to become co-sponsors, at a lesser price, but still benefiting from significant exposure.
“You get a lot of mileage out of sponsoring these programs, a lot of exposure” Mansour explained. “The logo of your product is featured at the end of every promotional spot for the show, you get regular ad spots during the program, with certain deals you are also offered airtime on other shows and as a main sponsor, your product will be placed in the show, so on Miss Lebanon, the girls were seen drinking Pampa.”
Product placement – a long standing feature in Western advertising strategies – is gaining ground through the shows. Media Group is now opening a separate department to handle such deals for its shows.
Additional revenue streams
A large part of the appeal of reality TV shows is the interactivity with the audience. Encouraged to text in comments and vote for contestants by phone or over the internet, viewers become an inherent part of such shows and are given a sense of empowerment.
The Arab Advisors Group reported that during the first season of Super Star, “the two finalists were from Syria and Jordan and the GSM operators in both countries turned it into a sort of national duty to vote for the compatriot. According to the (Future) TV station, 80% of the votes came from Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon,” the countries from which the semi finalists came from. Companies such as Intercom Media and Cellcast are brought in as mediators for the networks to negotiate deals and shares with mobile phone providers throughout the region.
Although representing a smaller share of the total revenue – according to Sabbagh, 75% of the revenues for Super Star come from advertising, and 25% from phone calls – telecommunication could reveal itself to have significant future revenue potential
“Phone calls and text messages represent a huge revenue potential,” said Batal. “Both Star Academy and Super Star have generated millions in SMS revenues.”
Following the season finale of the first season of Super Star, the Arab Advisors Group wrote that “the true super star may indeed be the mobile operators that grossed, along with Future TV and the VAS service provider, over $4 million in voting revenues alone.”
Another revenue generating industry on the sidelines of the shows is the sale of accessories. The success enjoyed by the shows have turned them into internationally renowned brands, thereby making it worthwhile for the networks to produce accessories related to the program or team up with other consumer products. “We’ll be launching a huge merchandizing campaign, teaming up with renowned brands such as Mont Blanc to make CEO pens, CEO diaries, products targeting the niche we have found with this program, which is the corporate world,” said Batal.
The risks ahead
Although tremendously successful from both an audience and a revenue perspective, the reality TV industry in the Middle East is not without its risks. The shows are kept in check by the conservative forces in the region, which can go as far as ensuring that a show is cancelled. MBC’s Arab version of the popular Big Brother show, casting 12 participants sharing an apartment on Bahrain’s Amway Islands, caused such a public outcry that the show was pulled off the air less than two weeks after its premiere.
For some advertisers, such controversy has served as a disincentive to attach their product to the shows. In enumerating the reasons why Nescafe chose not to renew its sponsorship deal with Star Academy, Fida Yared, media planner at Media Insight, which handles the Nescafe account, said: “Regionally, the program did not go down so well in certain areas. People reacted to the idea of boys and girls living together in the same house, which is one reason why Nescafe chose not to continue sponsoring Star Academy.”
Boycotts of the show have also affected the telecommunication side of the industry, most recently in January 2005, when Saudi Arabia’s main mobile phone operator, state owned Saudi Telecommunications Company, announced it was blocking its 9.5 million customers from texting their votes during the second season of Star Academy, on the grounds that the show did not “match the values of the Saudi culture.”
Remaining innovative whilst respecting local culture and religious values will be the challenge ahead for the reality TV industry. Although off on a good start, the networks have no time to rest on their laurels. “By their third season, the novelty of these shows wears off – generally, you are not going to get the same viewers watching season after season,” warned Batal.
Yared concurred. “The main reason why we decided not to renew our sponsorship of Star Academy was because we didn’t expect it to be as big of a hit again,” she said.
In the US, the reality show graveyard is steadily filling up as viewer ratings fail to match expectations, prompting CNN to predict that the heydays of the genre are coming to an end. A multi-million dollar industry that has taken the Arab world by storm, reality TV still needs to prove it has what it takes to be a ‘survivor’.
