Introduction
MTV (Music Television) is one of the world’s most popular cable music TV channels. The network of MTV sister channels embraces a broad range of music styles, ranging from heavy metal and rap music to country and jazz. Over the period from its launching in 1981 to the mid-1990s the MTV has continuously evolved as a highly successful music, entertainment and cultural project.
Expanding to Arab market was a strategically important step for MTV due to the size of the market (22 countries), its demographics (considerable number of young people), as well as the lack of ‘windows’ to Western culture (Office of the Deputy Chief of State for Intelligence, 2006). However, when expanding to the new totally new market of Arab countries, MTV faced a number of important issues that it had to keep in mind, when elaborating on entry and business development strategies. These challenges, as well as the avenues MTV took to counter them will be analyzed in the following assignment.
Question 1. Challenges MTV faced, when launching MTV Arabia
The key challenge that the MTV encountered, when entering the market of the Middle East, was the difference between the culture and values, promoted by MTV and the ones of the Middle Eastern states. Focusing on modern music and videos, MTV frequently shows explicit and even provocative content. However, that is not always acceptable for those, living in the Middle East. The major sources of confrontation between the MTV’s content and the conventional values and culture of the Middle East may deal with the lifestyle of depicted persons, their relations, clothes, as well as body contact (Thomson, 2013).
While modesty is one of the crucial cornerstones of Arabic culture, MTV may show videos, promoting luxury life of individuals and different surfeits (e.g., the use of alcohol, drugs), leading to public contempt. The relations between individuals are also very different in the Middle East and Western countries. Programs, shown by MTV, definitely fail to depict traditional family roles in Middle Eastern countries, especially with regard to the role of woman. Many women in the Arabic countries tend to maintain a traditional role, staying at home and relying on a husband’s support in decision-making and financial terms. An image of a Western career-oriented woman may seem unusual and unpleasant for the conservative members of Arabic society.
Appropriate clothing is of special importance for the culture of many Arabic states, especially with regard to the Islam requirements. That is why, frank clothing of music stars, appearing on MTV, is highly likely to cause contempt. Apart from a traditional patriarchal family, privacy is another cornerstone of Arabic culture. So, the explicit manifestations of body contact (especially related to sexual relations) serve as a crucial source of possible East-West tensions with regard to the MTV’s entry to the markets of Arab states.
The second issue, faced by MTV, concerns strong anti-American sentiment in Arab countries. According to Lynch (2013), even Obama’s support for some of the 2011 revolutions in the Middle East, the withdrawal of the U.S. troops from Iraq and the death of Osama bin Laden did not significantly influence the population’s attitudes to the USA. That is why, MTV faces not only a challenge of adjusting to the above peculiarities of the culture of the Middle East, but has to think about the way to avoid being associated with the U.S. soft power and East-West tensions. Importantly, the emergence of ISIS threat and the respective enhancement of the U.S. counter-terrorism strategy, as well as the European refugee crisis may lead to ever greater rivalry between the East and West.
Thirdly, entering to the market of Arabic states is challenging due to their disunity. Rivalry within the Arab World, differences in relations with Israel and Sunni-Shi’a Schism lead to the MTV’s need to possess a very good understanding of the local context to avoid misunderstandings and pitfalls. The above culture- and perceptions-related challenges, as well as governments’ intrusion into business and its complex regulations led to the challenge of finding a reliable local partner to launch the MTV channel in the Arab World.
Question 2. The MTV’s entry strategy
Being aware about the above challenges, MTV Networks elaborated on a unique entry strategy to mitigate the issues’ impact on business. The strategy consists of two crucial elements. First of all, MTV Networks relied on a unique expertise of a local partner to enter a highly regulated market of the Arabic countries. This approach helped MTV Networks both counter the regulatory barriers, associated with the market entry and get an insight into the way the company has to move forward to adjust to the unique business environment of the Arabic market. The partnership with a local company can be viewed as mutually beneficial. On the one hand, MTV Networks acquired a chance to enter the market, saving costs related to hiring external experts with a profound understanding of Arabic culture. On the other hand, the local company got a unique chance to access significant resources and global expertise of MTV Networks.
While it was rather easy for MTV Networks to solve the problem related to overcoming regulatory barriers in the Arab market, the most significant issue was to adjust the content to the culture and perceptions of the Arab-speaking population.
The localization strategy, aiming to blend the original content and Arab national music and videos, was designed by the MTV Networks in order to counter local criticism, contempt and Anti-American sentiment (Drotner&Livingstone, 2008, p.342). A crucial advantage of this strategy is that it can attract the attention of the potential audience to the MTV Networks, providing youth with an opportunity to demonstrate their talent in terms of specifically launched contests. Performing already two functions, localization can be viewed as a key to MTV Network’s success in the Middle East.
Overall, the design of the MTV networks’ entry strategy to the market of the Middle East seems to be doomed to success due to three reasons. Firstly, the MTV products are very different and will, therefore, attract interest, especially among liberal young people. Secondly, the partnership with the local company can prevent MTV Networks from significant failures and cultural pitfalls, as well as ensure acceptance. Finally, the “mixed content” strategy is also a good way to both mitigate criticism and attract attention.
Question 3. Company’s success. What could have been done differently? What the company shall do now?
The analysis of the history of the MTV Networks testifies to the fact that the MTV was very successful during its history (that can be easily proved by the significant Networks’ expansion rate). Entering the market of the Middle East was a crucial step of the MTV’s development, given its size and unique demographics. The company managed to invent a strategy, allowing for the mitigation of the major context-specific challenges’ impact on its activities. To my mind, while developing the localization strategy, MTV should have paid more attention to its presence at cultural events. For instance, it could have supported some competition for local singers or a video-contest among youth. Importantly, different events could have been held in different countries of the Arab World.
Nowadays MTV shall consider launching and sponsoring events that can positively impact its image, taking into account the disunity between the Arab World countries.
References
Drotner, R., Livingstone, S (eds). (2008). International Handbook of Children, Media and Culture. London: SAGE
Office of the Deputy Chief of State for Intelligence (2006). Arab cultural awareness: 56 factsheets. Retrieved 17 May 2016 from https://fas.org/irp/agency/army/arabculture.pdf
Thomson, A.J. (2011). Arab cultural values. Retrieved 17 May 2016 from http://family.lovetoknow.com/arabic-culture-values
