Earlier this year, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Information and Culture announced the winners of the five new FM radio licenses in the Kingdom, a move heralded as a new era in the Saudi radio industry. Prior to that, only one private broadcaster ruled the Saudi airwaves: UAE-based MBC. With two FM channels, MBC FM and MBC Panorama, the MBC group had enjoyed a monopoly for more than 15 years. But private broadcasters rallied and lobbied for years, until the government finally awarded broadcasting licenses to the highest bidders. The winners were: Alf Alf, Shams Radio Consortium, Creative Edge, Riyadh Electronic Resources, and MBC’s biggest competitor, Rotana.
Rifaat Darwish Mahmoud, radio marketing manager for the MBC group, says that while it has had the monopoly on the Saudi market for years, it has faced some competition from the Eastern region, where broadcasts from Bahrain, Qatar, and the UAE spill over into the Kingdom. “Even then, research and studies prove that MBC FM and MBC Panorama are doing much better in terms of listenership,” says Mahmoud. “With the entrance of new radio stations, things will become different and the market will become very competitive. But in terms of new listeners or advertisers, we believe we are standing on very solid ground; we do our very best to be the leaders and to be the top-of-mind radio stations. We have been on the right track.”
Mazen Fakhoury, managing director of Mindshare in Saudi Arabia, says that while the channels have not yet launched – they are currently in a testing phase and are expected to launch at the end of this year or the beginning of next year – clients have started considering the new stations in their media plans. “They haven’t incorporated the new stations in their plans yet, but of course, they are considering them,” says Fakhoury. “They are asking: How do we improve our optimisation? We’re still on the learning curve; it’s difficult for clients to imagine things before they happen. But there are people who never used radio as an advertising medium before and are now considering it.”
Firas Khashman, vice-president of the audio sector at Rotana, says that with the new stations on board, the industry will open up to “neighborhood advertisers.” Local clients with smaller budgets who could not advertise on MBC radio stations because the prices were too steep will now be able to use other stations. Fakhoury says this makes radio advertising more accessible. “The second-tier players, brands that are really local in Saudi Arabia, don’t use television much to advertise,” he says. “So these guys will definitely become more active on radio. Some people didn’t have programs to use before, but now, because of the variety, it opens up new opportunities.”
Saudi industry insiders are confident that the addition of new FM radio stations to the Kingdom’s airwaves will create a healthy environment, one where programming and advertising will thrive. Mahmoud says that until recently, there has been a lack of understanding of the medium in Saudi Arabia, an issue that he says will likely be resolved when the new broadcasters go on the air. “The awareness about the importance of radio as an advertising medium will get better, as agencies will be forced to follow up on research findings,” says Mahmoud.
