Saudi Arabia establishes Media City in Riyadh

Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Culture and Media City project CEO, Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Fahran, signed on Tuesday 4 agreements with leading institutions across cultural, media and technological fields to establish offices and headquarters at the project.

Located at Al Safarat or the Diplomatic Quarter in Riyadh, the Media City project will become a unique innovative global destination and a regional hub for culture, media and technology sectors that play a vital role in shaping the innovation industry, including publishing, podcasts, movies, social media platforms, digital advertising, digital education, virtual reality, content development, photography, design, fashion, newspapers, magazines, radios and TV channels among others.

In addition, the project provides a number of services such as studios, culture-enabling facilities, offices, residential and commercial zones, hospitality, and business incubators.

The project targets regional media networks, e-commerce platforms, satellite technologies, specialized international and regional agencies, promising productive projects and national bodies specialized in the culture, media, technology, innovation and knowledge sectors.

Riyadh’s Media City, which can accommodate around 1,000 facilities, aims to support promising small and medium enterprises (SMEs), contribute to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and create direct and indirect job opportunities.

The first agreement was signed with eWTP Arabia investment fund, affiliated with China’s Alibaba Group to set up a regional office for the MENA region.

Moreover, MBC Group, the Saudi Research and Marketing Group (SRMG) and Al Arabiya TV and its sister network Al Hadath also signed with the Media City project to establish new headquarters.

Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Fahran said that Saudis are among the largest consumers of digital media platforms, topped by YouTube, Snapchat, and Twitter, noting that they account for more than 40% of Twitter users across the MENA region.

He concluded that the Kingdom is witnessing a rapid growth of the information technology (IT) and communications sectors, stressing that the Media City project will open doors to all ambitious, serious and creative projects.