Group ONE Holdings (ONE) and Media City Qatar are looking to bring some great content to the Middle East after a groundbreaking partnership started on 22 June.
ONE and Media City Qatar signed a Memorandum of Understanding that aims to develop a strategic long-term partnership and collaboration in global content at the Qatar Economic Forum, powered by Bloomberg.
The partnership will commence by showcasing Qatar in the second season of “The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition” – the company’s unique spin on the world-famous business reality TV show that streamed in more than 150 countries upon its release.
Its first season was a success, garnering an estimated four million viewers on its premier broadcast night in 2021, and it was Asia’s most-watched English-language reality premier that year.
It was also named the “Best Non-Scripted Entertainment” and “Best Adaptation of an Existing Format” in the Asian Academy Creative Awards in 2021.
“This partnership is extremely strategic as it marks our foray into the Middle East, a key market for ONE across all of our content offerings: general entertainment, martial arts, and esports,” ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong said.
“We are excited to bring ONE closer to all our fans in Qatar and across the Middle East. Media City has big ambitions of establishing Qatar as a global media hub and we are committed to enhancing this vision while building world-class content in Qatar to serve millions of fans around the world.”
ONE and Media City are also in discussions to develop and produce live sports programming, including studio shows that will enhance Qatar’s production capabilities while attracting world-class media companies and talent to the country.
Esports will also be one of the main priorities in the partnership, as they plan to create a hub for developers and other stakeholders – tapping into the ever growing gaming community and highlighting their world-class facilities.
“We are very excited to announce a partnership with Group ONE Holdings which will bring a global content creator to Doha and strengthen Qatar’s media ecosystem. Media City is focusing on enabling innovative, creative media to flourish in Qatar and this partnership will be strategic in achieving this objective,” Sheikh Ali bin Abdullah bin Khalifa Al-Thani, CEO of Media City Qatar, said.
“We expect that this partnership will also create a path for other global IP content creators to consider Qatar as a hub to build their presence.”
Catch all the ONE Championship action by downloading the ONE Super App.