Lebanese TV firm to move into Abu Dhabi

The Charisma Group, a Lebanese TV production house, plans to open an office in Abu Dhabi's media zone twofour54 as part of an expansion drive in the Gulf. With the company's headquarters in Beirut, Charisma says twofour54 will be its new base for the Gulf region. It estimates it will produce up to 4,000 hours of programming during the first three years of operation. The launch is likely to create 70 jobs, Charisma and twofour54 said in a joint statement.

"Our focus on insightful content makes it only logical for us to expand our operations within the Gulf," said Ayman al Zyoud, the chief executive of Charisma. Charisma Group, which was founded in 2005, will use existing production equipment available at the media centre. The announcement was made yesterday in Cannes, France, at the MIPCOM conference, which focuses on the sale of media content. Earlier in the week twofour54 announced it had sold the rights to its children's TV show Captain Karim Qitar Al Hekayat to a channel operated by Al Jazeera.

The media zone began operations in 2008, with heavyweights such as CNN, the BBC, the Financial Times and Thomson Reuters Foundation on board as launch partners. By the end of this year, the centre aims to have more than 100 media companies signed up as members.