On Sunday, His Highness Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, met with Jeff Zucker, Chairman, WarnerMedia News and Sports, and President of CNN Worldwide.
The meeting was held at the Dubai International Financial Centre in the presence of His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Dubai Media Council.
His Excellency Mohammad Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs; His Excellency Helal Saeed Al Marri, Director General of Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism; Her Excellency Mona Al Marri, Vice Chairperson and Managing Director of the Dubai Media Council and Director General of the Government of Dubai Media Office; His Excellency Malek Al Malek, Group CEO of TECOM Group; Rani R. Raad, President, CNN Worldwide Commercial; Allison Gollust, Executive Vice President of WarnerMedia News and Sport; and other senior officials of CNN Worldwide also attended the meeting.
His Highness and the Chairman of WarnerMedia discussed a range of issues related to worldwide developments in the media industry, with a particular focus on how Dubai can support the growth of global media companies like CNN at a time when they are navigating massive economic and market transformations. Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed also discussed with Jeff Zucker how Dubai offers global media players a supportive platform to tap new markets, leverage new opportunities and position themselves for long-term success amidst the changes taking place worldwide.
His Highness said: “The ambitious vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, launched two decades ago to develop the media industry, has led to Dubai becoming a prominent centre for international media. Amidst today’s rapidly evolving global environment, Dubai has gained the worldwide community’s trust as one of the globe’s safest and most productive hubs for business, investment and talent, and is ideally positioned to support media companies in riding the next wave of the industry’s transformation.”
“At a time when media companies need to respond in an agile and dynamic way to a constantly evolving landscape, Dubai offers the infrastructure, regulatory framework and support services necessary for media companies to free themselves from operational hassles to focus on driving innovation to take them to the next level,” His Highness further said.
Sheikh Maktoum also said that CNN’s growth story based out of Dubai is an example of the strong private sector partnerships that are driving the development of various sectors in the emirate. “The private sector continues to be a key partner in Dubai’s efforts to shape a new phase of growth driven by innovation and new technology over the next 50 years,” His Highness said.
Jeff Zucker, who oversees all of WarnerMedia’s live programming, including all divisions of CNN Worldwide and Turner Sports, expressed his appreciation to HH Sheikh Maktoum for the extensive support Dubai has provided for the media conglomerate’s growth in the Middle East region. He said CNN continues to take advantage of its base in Dubai to explore new horizons for growing its coverage and business operations in the region.
One of the first global companies to set up a base in Dubai Media City, Dubai’s media industry cluster, CNN has steadily grown its operations from its base in the emirate. The US-headquartered media company established its Middle East operations in Dubai in 2002 with the launch of CNN Arabic, its international news service in the Arabic language. In 2016, HH Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed opened CNN’s new hi-tech studio in Dubai on the 14th anniversary of the launch of its Arabic news service.
This year, the media giant further ramped up its Middle East business coverage out of its base in Dubai with the expansion of its global CNN Marketplace franchise. ‘CNN Marketplace Middle East’ scaled up its cross-platform programming to cover a wider range of business stories shaping the Middle East region, which includes a dedicated new digital section on CNN Business and CNN Arabic.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Finance World staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
