MBC boss: 'Pay-for-TV is unsustainable'

'If pay-tv was sustainable, would Showtime and Orbit have amalgamated together?' - Tim Riordan.

‘Pay-for-television’ in the Middle East is unsustainable, according to one of the region's most powerful expatriates in the media industry.

"The culture in this part of the world is very much television is for free," Tim Riordan, Group TV Director at MBC Group said in an interview with Arabian Business TV.

Riordan who has been nominated once again as one of the most influential expats in the GCC according to the latest Expat Power 50 list [click to see] said, "pay-for-television is unsustainable, especially in a world where sports rights are too expensive to support free-to-air with advertising".

For someone who sits behind the scenes and manages to maintain a low profile, Riordan has become a pioneer in delivering family entertainment to more than 150 million Arabic speakers around the world.

Riordan, ranked 27 on Arabian Business’ definitive list of the region’s top expats, believes "he has contributed to the economies of MBC Group" by bringing in western programming through the launch of MBC2 for example.

The UK national also acknowledged the contribution of one of the world’s richest Arab businessmen, Sheikh Waleed Bin Ibrahim Al Ibrahim in shaping the future of MBC Group as a whole, in an exclusive interview with Arabian Business TV.