Following its May launch of seven new online brands, Dubai-based radio network ARN is to launch two new Arabic-language stations. They will be digital-only extensions of the network’s Al-Khaleejiya and Al-Arabiya, and will bring the total number of ARN radio brands – both terrestrial and digital – to 18.
Chief operating officer of ARN Steve Smith said both Al-Khaleejiya and Al-Arabiya dominate their categories. Al-Arabiya plays popular music and is aimed at the under-40s. Al-Khaleejiya plays music from the Gulf, mainly produced within the UAE, and appeals to a wider age range of UAE and GCC nationals.
“Back on May 1 we launched seven new radio brands, and they were all digital extensions of some of our terrestrial brands,” said Smith. “We have been so overwhelmed with the uptake of these stations that we are going to launch another two stations on Arabic channels.”
He added: “I won’t give away the format, but they will be considerably different to Al-Khaleejiya and Al-Arabiya; but they will be further extensions of those formats.”
The reason behind launching digital brand extensions, said Smith, is to keep people listening for longer.
“The Holy Grail of this is to have them listen longer to our brands, rather than maybe stepping out to a more international format that they are streaming in from outside the UAE,” said Smith. “And what we have found is that time spent listening on our terrestrial brands that have these digital stations has actually gone up. There’s no cannibalisation; it’s actually increasing the amount of listening for longer periods.”
The station launches come at the end of a quiet summer. “It is slow in June and July but we were nicely prepared for it and were able to exceed our targets, but there was definitely a slowdown in the pipeline where there was some nervousness in the market,” said Smith. “But we see some wonderful confidence coming back into the market. Our forward bookings are up on last year, and last year was a record by some margin.”
The stations will be live before the end of the year. Smith says that upgrades and investments in the brands are further planned for up to five years into the future.
ARN has also announced the launch of a digital and video production house, Blaze, which will focus on branded messaging.
