Eight media cities serve the Arab world's media industry with more cities on the horizon

The concept of media cities, as industry clusters where media companies can gather and operate, is a spreading phenomenon in the Arab world.

The Egyptian Media Production City was the first media city established in the Arab World in 1997, followed by the Dubai Media City and Jordan Media City in 2001.

Since then, four other media cities were established in the UAE alone as well as one private sector media city in Oman.

A new report, "Media Cities in the Arab World" was released to the Arab Advisors Group's Media Strategic Research Service subscribers in October 2009.

The 58-page report, which has 34 detailed exhibits, profiles all established media cities in detail and sheds light on potential media cities planned and under study in the Arab World.

In the UAE alone there are more operational media free zones than there are media cities in all other Arab countries combined.

This is the result of competition between the emirates, as they try to attract businesses to their own zones.

The UAE hosts five media cities in four emirates

• TECOM Investment's Dubai Media City
• Dubai Studio City
• Abu Dhabi's twofour54
• Ras Al Khaimah Media City
• Creative City Fujairah

Many Arab countries are planning or studying the prospects of setting up their own media cities.

"Interest in establishing media production free zones is increasing in the Arab World. Plans and studies are sprouting in several Arab countries. The Arab Advisors Group has identified six Arab countries with various levels of interest and progress in creating media cities. These countries are Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Sudan." Mr. Samer Abbas, Arab Advisors' Senior Research Analyst wrote in the report.