Quality content at home

It’s true that we do not yet have enough good content in our own backyard, but does that mean we don’t have any at all? Have our regional broadcasters fixed their gaze so intently on international content and hyped programmes, or those that are heavily backed by high-profile regional authorities, that they have lost the skill to spot the occasional independent good content or talent sprouting on home soil?

I have been working for 13 years in the region’s broadcast industry, and somewhere along that journey I met Yusuf Thakur, who makes corporate videos for a living but invests much of his profits into filming wildlife. He has gone to several remote areas across the UAE, where others have feared to tread, and followed specific animals for several months on end, filming with the latest technology during each of those shoots, whether HD then or 4K now. Back then, we agreed there were no takers for such content because there were neither regional factual channels nor the kind of backing we see for local content today. One would think all of that has changed.

Sadly, although he has made pretty decent videos, he has failed thus far to secure an audience with any of the regional broadcasters to acquire his content. Thakur is one of several others in this market. Does that indicate that if you do not have the backing of a high-profile investor to place you in front of the powers that be, your content will fail to make it on TV? Or does it mean that we are waiting for local content to get picked up by an international channel, to recognise and acknowledge its value, before we bid for it ourselves? I don’t necessarily know the answers or what the red tape entails, but I am concerned that good independent content created about this region by talented residents with technical know-how and strong capabilities does not receive the support it should.