Issue No. 1
Fall 1998 Issue 1 home page Return to current issue of TBS Archives main page CNE in Egypt:
Some Light at the End of an Arduous Tunnel By Joe S. Foote During the 1990s, the Middle East has experienced an explosion of growth in new media services, especially those delivered by satellite. The Middle East Broadcasting Centre (MBC), Orbit, Arab Radio and Television (ART), Emirates Dubai TV, and EgyptÂs Spacenet have all become well-known entities in the region (Bulloch 1995). Most of the attention generated by these media deal with their increased penetration and potential success. While there is a clear hunger for additional media outlets in the Middle East, not all initiatives have been successful. This paper examines the case of a private, encrypted television channel in Egypt that, despite optimistic forecasts, has had limited success in its quest to be a viable enterprise in the highly populated Cairo market. Cable Network Egypt (CNE), formerly called Cable News Egypt, is the countryÂs first private television channel and only UHF subscription channel. This paper describes the founding of CNE, its initial success as a free channel, problems associated with its beginnings as a pay channel, its limited subscription base, the expansion of CNE as a network offering additional channels, and the subsequent investment by South Africans in an effort to revive and expand the service. Background of CNE
Until recently television has been the sole province of the state, which has operated three channels since 1960. One mass channel offered entertainment and news. A second channel was aimed at more sophisticated urban viewers, while a third served the foreign community in French and English (Amin 1995). | |
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