Ali Jaber takes his talents to MBC

Profile: The incoming group TV director at MBC has been a war reporter and gained fame as a TV talent show judge. Soon, he will be the one under the spotlight.

Illustration by Chris Burke for The National

Lunch with Ali Jaber rarely goes uninterrupted. During a meeting over shwarmas and shisha, suited friends and acquaintances - and sometimes strangers - stop to greet the media executive.
He seems to know everyone, at least in the Dubai Media City bubble. But that is not surprising, given the mark he has made on the regional media industry.
Mr Jaber, 49, moved to Dubai in 2003 to be a media consultant in the restructuring of the Dubai Media Incorporated (DMI) television network. But that is not where he earned such a popular following.
That came early this year when he appeared as a judge on Arabs Got Talent, a Middle Eastern version of the international TV talent show, where he earned a reputation for plain speaking.
He laughs off the inevitable comparisons to the British media executive Simon Cowell, the bossy and blunt judge on the UK version of the show.
While he may not be as recognisable internationally as Mr Cowell, Mr Jaber certainly became a household name in the Arab world.
But in September he will start his biggest job to date, as group TV director of MBC, the Arab world's largest broadcaster. As part of the role, he will be responsible for liaising with some of the largest media companies around the globe.
His duties will include arranging content deals for MBC's ninechannels and he will face the challenge of maintaining MBC's lead in television advertising revenue amid mounting competition.
On top of all this, though, he plans to remain a judge on Arabs Got Talent. So, can he, like Simon Cowell, juggle the demands of a successful career as a media executive with high-profile appearances in front of the camera?
Mr Jaber sees nothing strange about taking the senior position at MBC while continuing to be a judge on Arabs Got Talent.
"It's actually in total alignment of interests," he says. "It's a fantastic brand. It's a huge show."
In fact, Arabs Got Talent is an example of the type of production that Mr Jaber would like to focus on in his new job at MBC. He calls it "good quality production".
The glamour of TV and executive suites aside, Mr Jaber has an academic bent.He is dean of the journalism school at the American University in Dubai, has taught communication in his native Lebanon and is studying for a PhD at Cambridge.
His thesis is on the history of Arab satellite television between 1990 and 2010. "Basically the story of my life, and basically the story of MBC as well," he says.
All of this seems a long way from Nabatiyeh, a town in southern Lebanon where he grew up and where his father, who died in 1997, was mayor. But Mr Jaber says Nabatiyeh is now a "ghost town".
"Our house was bombed six times, [and] I was injured three times," he says. "We moved to Beirut in 1976 when it became unbearable to live in Nabatiyeh due to the constant Israeli shelling."
After studying business administration at the American University in Beirut, Mr Jaber moved to New York to study for a master's degree in communication at Syracuse University. In 1986 he returned to Lebanon, at a time when many others were fleeing the country because of the civil war.
Soon after he arrived, he picked up work as a war correspondent for The New York Times, The Timesand the German Press Agency - and also taught at the local university.
Mr Jaber quickly made friends in the right places. Working as a journalist, he had the opportunity to interview the late Rafik Hariri, who became prime minister of Lebanon in 1992. What started as a professional relationship turned into a friendship.
"My work as a journalist led me to meet Hariri himself," said Mr Jaber. "I got along very, very well with him personally. I was among the youngest people in his team. We knew each other, we hit it off . He considered me one of his family."
It was Hariri who gave Mr Jaber his big break in the business of media. In 1992, he was asked to set up Future TV, Hariri's television network, which is still in operation.
A decade later, Mr Jaber got a call from advisers to another political figure - Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. He was asked to move to Dubai to work as a media consultant involved in restructuring the TV operation of the government-owned DMI.
What was supposed to be a one-year posting to Dubai turned into permanent residency in the UAE.
And so Dubai became home to Mr Jaber, his wife, Tamara, and their two teenage children.
"I was supposed to come here for one year, and I stayed for eight," he says. "Home is always going to be in Beirut. If I was to choose where to die, I'd like it to be there. But Dubai is also a home to me."
Mr Jaber, who turns 50 next month, was in Dubai on Valentine's Day in 2005 when he heard that Hariri had been assassinated.
"A friend of mine called me up and said there had been a big explosion in Beirut. I turned on the television and immediately guessed it was an assassination attempt against Hariri. I just felt it," he says.
Mr Jaber welcomed the recent indictments after a lengthy UN investigation into the assassination but hopes the process will not be compromised.
"I hope that this tribunal brings the real culprits to justice. I hope it's not used for political purposes other than finding the real killers of Rafik Hariri."
As he joins MBC Group, which is privately owned by Saudi investors, Mr Jaber is quick to point out that it has "close ties" to Dubai.
"My move to MBC was blessed by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who considers MBC part of his family anyway," he says.
MBC is by far the largest broadcaster in the Arab world, taking in at least half of the regional TV advertising revenue, which totals more than US$1 billion (Dh3.67bn) annually.
He says he will be standing on the shoulders of his predecessor, Tim Riordan, who is retiring in October.
"If it ain't broken, why fix it?" says Mr Jaber. "MBC is a very well-oiled machine. It's working. I just have to fit into their system and try to bring a new outlook, my outlook, into the conversation."
Nick Grande, the managing director of ChannelSculptor, a television consultancy in Dubai, says Mr Jaber's challenge will be to sustain MBC's market dominance.
"There is no TV market of any size, anywhere, that has a broadcaster that is so dominant," says Mr Grande. "One key challenge for Tim's successor will be to sustain and advance MBC Group's viewership, when the network is already in such a dominant position."
Yet it is difficult to imagine a better fit for MBC than Mr Jaber, who has won the respect of many in the industry. Both Mr Riordan and his successor are big names in the industry, says Mr Grande.
"You're talking about replacing one huge figure in the industry with another, which is a smart move," he says.
Despite the glamorous world he inhabits, one feels that with the MBC job, Mr Jaber's lunchtime shisha will soon be interrupted by even more people wearing suits.
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