Dubai Media City (DMC) is gearing up to launch a comprehensive training program encompassing both academic and technological aspects that will place Dubai as key player on the global media map, Gulf News reported.
Saeed Hussein Al Muntafiq, the chief executive officer at DMC, said that the initiative, which will be officially launched in two weeks, comes alongside with the three-year strategy of the complex that aims to propel Dubai as a key player on the global media scene.
“It is city centers around the world that rule the global media, and today it is New York, Los Angeles, London, Hong Kong - dare I say it will also be Dubai tomorrow," Al Muntafiq said.
He clarified that the Dubai Technology, e-Commerce and Media Free Zone Authority views itself more as an industry enabler by providing leading-edge infrastructure capability, rather than itself becoming a media player through news dissemination. Nor did it view itself as a telecommunications services provider for the entire UAE, although Dubai Internet City was itself the ISP provider for its tenants, said the Dubai-based paper.
The chief executive officer at DMC explained that the new strategy for the DMC will mainly focus on six industrial segments like the broadcasting, publishing, marketing service providers, music, cinema post-production, and multi-media.
He added this thrust is based upon three basic premises: IT convergence, with the cellphone of tomorrow 'talking' to the TV channel decoder; the need for access to content; and the country's leadership's vision of attracting talent by building clusters.
He pointed out that the first three industry segments form a strong cluster by themselves, with any one interacting primarily with the other two - and the market in the region is booming.
He was quoted by the paper as saying that "today you have 150 television channels in the region, with the number projected to go up by another 200 within five years - which translates into some 665,000 hours of production time on TV, as per independent estimates. While this is obviously a tremendous opportunity, on the other hand no broadcaster in the region is today making money, since each has invested in its infrastructure.
On the training initiative, he said on the academics side it would include digital graphics, journalism, post-production, music, etc; and on the technology side software development, PC training and allied topics – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
