Dubai on Demand targets a gap in the English-language TV market

New Dubai online TV channel Dubai on Demand offers original programming and aims to showcase the cream of Dubai One's former talent.

Dubai on Demand presenters, from left, Tamara Al Gabbani, Tom Urquhart, Punam Verma, Dalia Dogmoch, Faraz Javed, Layne Redman, Dina Butti, Nitin Mirani and Aishwarya Ajit Gordon. Courtesy Dubai One

Dubai on Demand is a new online TV channel that seeks to bring the “local” back into local English-language broadcasting. The mission is perhaps all the more important following the announcement last summer that the leading English-language channel, Dubai One, would be abandoning its in-house ­production in favour of buying ­programming.

Indeed, the channel's founder Reim El Houni, already a well-known face on the local production scene thanks to her award-winning production house Ti22 Films, has brought on board many of Dubai One's most famous former faces, including the Out and About presenters Punam Verma and Layne Redman, and the Studio One hosts Aishwarya Ajit Gordon and Tom Urquhart to front the channel's initial content.

Despite so much global English-language content already available to audiences, and the likes of Dubai One moving away from in-house production, El Houni seems convinced there is a gap in the market for the new venture: “Although there is a great deal of English-language content available, very little of it is local,” she explains. “There is a strong expat community looking for local content that is relevant to them. There is also a curious international audience who are interested in the UAE. Our channel is based on building that community and catering to what viewers want to watch. I really don’t see broadcasters as competition as it’s a different medium, and in the online space the world is our oyster.”

It’s certainly true that Gulf audiences are avid consumers of online content, with some of the highest YouTube audience figures in the world, and it is ­precisely by offering something different to the traditional broadcasters that El Houni hopes to succeed: “I think the nature of online consumption is ‘bite-sized’,” she says. “On average, online viewer retention drops around one minute and 40 seconds right now. My goal is to create an online channel that will provide the consistency and regular programming that you would expect from a TV channel but to build it in a bite-sized format so that we are actually catering to what viewers want to watch and their attention spans.”

The channel is still at an early stage – an experimental “soft launch” of material on YouTube is ongoing, while the channel’s social-media outlets are already picking up followers. In these early stages, El Houni is obviously hoping the familiarity of the hosts will be an initial driver for audiences: “I do believe that there is strength in numbers and working as a team means that we are all supporting each other’s shows and progress,” she says. “At this stage, I would say that they are all ‘key shows’. We are in an early stage of development and I am sure they will all evolve, but I think we have a good mix of talent and a diverse range of lifestyle content. The key factor across all the shows is that I would like the channel to be as interactive as possible and become an experience for viewers. Dubai on Demand will offer everything from giving viewers an opportunity to experience an adrenalin-fuelled sport with Layne, to letting Tom know where the best meals in town are and allowing you to join him to experience the food, or share your best-kept alternative therapies with Punam and get your style questions answered by Tamara [the fashion designer Tamara Al Gabbani]. The channel will build on the interaction and aim to build a strong community over time.”

In the future, El Houni hopes to give the channel a full grid of regular shows and a set schedule that will allow it to build its audience. She also has plans for the channel to become a major event partner, broadcasting from some of the region’s glitziest parties and the hosts have already had trial runs at Dubai International Film Festival, the Global Gift Gala and the DXB NYE event.