However, differing socio-political environments for each country makes expansion into this region complicated and an investment minefield - Are you armed with sufficient information to succeed in this region?

Middle East and North Africa TV, the new report from the publishers of TV International, guides you through the socio-political climate of 16 of the key territories in the region, highlighting new opportunities and potential pitfalls to enable you to make the right investment choices. Providing full coverage of each territory's television sector, as well as details of government regulation and legislation, Middle East and North Africa TV is the ultimate guide to the region.

Coverage of 16 key territories in the region, including in-depth information on the highly developed TV countries Turkey and Israel

Full details of TV households and cable and satellite penetration rates for each of the featured countries .

An outline of the political and economic situation for each of the areas, to enable you to understand each territory fully .

Comprehensive coverage of government regulation surrounding TV broadcast for each country.

Ensure you have the necessary information on the region to maximise your investment and avoid potential pitfalls with Middle East and North Africa TV - all the information you need to succeed, in one concise report!

Executive Summary
The Middle East and North Africa TV market has much potential, with few private terrestrial channels, a common language for most of the region, relative wealth and several governments liberalizing their economies and social structures.

However, the reality is different. The two most developed TV nations - Israel and Turkey - are detached from the rest of the region. The Turkish TV sector has more in common with Greece and Italy than its Muslim neighbours. Israel operates in isolation from the rest of the region and looks towards Europe for its models.

Two of the three main pay TV platforms (Orbit, ADD and Showtime) appear to have financial difficulties and are losing subscribers. Outside Turkey and Israel, estimates for the pay TV universe vary from 400,000 to 800,000 households - fairly small as a propotion of TV households. Piracy is a great problem for these platforms. Other pay TV packages cater for the sizeable ex-pat European and Asian communities.

There also are too many free-to-air satellite channels for the limited advertising budgets available. Several countries have bans on satellite dishes, though most of these bans are ignored. The bans indicate that the respective governments want to retain control of their country's media. The free-to-air satellite channels are careful not to break too many taboos, though they were responsible for developments such as unveiled female presenters and independent news coverage.

The terrestrial channels are often mouthpieces for the local government, and thus have few viewers. Censorship in these conservative countries is also much stronger than in the west. The award of private terrestrial channels is unlikely in many of the region's countries. It seems likely that there will be a shake-out and some consolidation among the satellite players. Rumours have persisted for some time that two of the pay TV platforms (which two changes on an almost annual basis) are on the point of merger. Several free-to-air satellite channels are re-broadcasts of the terrestrial transmissions, and thus operate mainly for prestige reasons rather than commercial ones.

Egypt is losing some of its status as the regional programme production hub. Having almost completed a full recovery from the prolonged civil war, Lebanon once again has a thriving production environment, with neighbouring Jordan and Syria also developing fast. Dubai has aspirations to become the Singapore of the MENA region. This includes investing in the Dubai Media City - again a reflection of Singapore's regional media hub - that has attracted several key players.