ABSTRACT
When the ruling families of two oil-rich Arab emirates decided in the 2000s to put money into producing satellite television content for Arabic-speaking children, one of their first steps in the process was to hire foreign executives. Preparing in 2002 for the 2005 launch of Al-Jazeera Children’s Channel (JCC), based in Qatar, Shaikha Moza bint Nasser al-Missned, head of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development and wife of the then emir, paid France’s Lagardère Group to start the project. In time the channel’s head turned to UK independents for consultancy and coproduction. Separately, the Abu Dhabi government, recruiting in 2007 for a new Arabic content creation and media support initiative known as twofour54, appointed two Britons and an Australian to the most senior roles. Twofour54’s first foray into coproduction of preschool Arabic children’s content in 2009 was with a UK production company, 3Line Media.
