Pop goes Arab culture as US TV takes over

Arabs may dislike United States foreign policy in the Middle East, but when they want to indulge in some escapism many turn to American popular culture, which has taken Arab television screens by storm in the past three years.

Free-to-use satellite channels show little else but US sitcoms, chat shows and real-time news broadcasts such as ABC's Primetime. The American shows are subtitled in Arabic and cut out kissing or other scenes considered sexually provocative.

Saudi-owned Middle East Broadcasting Centre has expanded from its main Arabic news and entertainment channel, MBC 1, to include a channel dedicated to Hollywood movies (MBC 2) and another withUS sitcoms and talk shows (MBC 4).

In Dubai, United Arab Emirates, One TV was launched late last year and offers the same mix of American fare.

The channels have become hugely popular across the Arab world and advertisers are eager to buy air-time to reach a growing audience in affluent Gulf Arab countries.

"We are a platform," said Mohammed Al-Mulhem, public relations director for MBC. "We give you the privilege of having a view on the world and knowing what the Western view is.

"Western entertainment appeals to youth. Consumers are getting more sophisticated and getting demanding. We are trying to spot trends."

The rise of American pop culture is not to everyone's taste: Some say the trend is indicative of an intellectual crisis in Arab countries, betraying an unwillingness to put money into Arabic television production.

Young people in Saudi Arabia - an ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom that produced 15 of the 19 September 11 hijackers - can flick from Islamic stations to entertainment channels featuring chat-show queen Oprah Winfrey and repeats of sitcoms such as Friends.

Clerics have left the US programming alone, instead attacking Arabic versions of Western reality TV and talent shows. Saudi Arabia's strict gender segregation requires women to be covered in public and accompanied by a male relative.

This interest in American pop culture seems to exist in isolation from the political views of many in the region.

Arab-US ties are at their most strained in decades because of the US-led invasion of Iraq and Washington's support for Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians.

"People appreciate American culture, entertainment and, to some extent, their values concerning democracy," said Jihad Fakhreddine of the Pan-Arab Research Centre in Dubai. "But when it comes to attitudes towards the region, it's a different story altogether. This is what the US is not able to understand."

- REUTERS