Abu Dhabi TV, the spoils of War (page 3 of 3)

That change in viewing habits affects your grid, what is shown on your screen. It is a question of not only maintaining but also increasing the number of viewers. If you are not there, if you are no part of the whole thing right now with war coverage, you'd be missing a lot.

Q. After the war is over, will Abu Dhabi TV go back to airing game shows and sitcoms?

A. We do not know how long the war will continue. But after a while, life will go on. People will not be watching only news all the time. The channel has the guts and the flexibility to say, We know that viewers will consume a lot of news. We want to have part of that. We don't want people saying, 'When the news is finished we'll watch channels like Abu Dhabi.' That was the challenge. People will watch news, so I'll provide them with news because that's where the interest is.

You can't switch from being a total news channel to a total variety channel. It's important that the transitional stage is carefully done. When the fighting stops, that doesn't mean that peace is there. It will take some time. We have to be careful about how much news we show after that.

You don't want people to get fed up with the news. But you don't want to ignore or underestimate the importance of the crisis on people's lives. The region is very small. Because of this geography, we will feel the impact afterwards more than America, more than the West. That's a fact.