The London Generation
One channel, broadcast from London, proving that private pan-Arab satellite television could exist at all.
MBC Alumni
A private network for the people who built MBC — in London, in Dubai, in Cairo, in Beirut and in Riyadh — to find each other again, to put on the record how it was actually done, and to be reachable by whoever tries to build something like it next.
Why now
In September 1991 a small team put the first privately owned pan-Arab satellite channel on air from London. Nobody had done it before. There was no Arab satellite television industry to hire from, no template to copy and no second attempt budgeted. They did it out of rented British facilities, for a region whose television news had been made by governments.
Three of the group's four homes — London, Dubai, Riyadh — are effectively three different companies wearing the same name. The people who ran the London channel are not the people who built the Dubai bouquet, and neither are the people running a listed company from Riyadh today. Each transition took a generation of staff with it.
What survives is the output: the channels, the formats, the drama slates, the annual reports. What does not survive is the method — how the first uplink was arranged, how the Hollywood deals were actually negotiated, what it took to launch a news channel weeks before the invasion of Iraq, what was learned turning a catch-up video service into the region's largest streaming platform. That sits in a few hundred heads, most of them no longer in the building.
Four generations
This is not only for the class of 1991. Every era solved a problem the next one inherited.
One channel, broadcast from London, proving that private pan-Arab satellite television could exist at all.
Dubai Media City, Al Arabiya, and the channel factory that became the region's largest free-to-air bouquet.
Global formats localised at scale, the Egyptian expansion, MBC Studios, and Shahid.
The move to Riyadh, the Tadawul listing, PIF control, and a streaming-first company.
The expertise we are assembling
Most alumni networks collect journalists and stop there. The people who made MBC work were spread across every one of these, and the ones who are hardest to find are rarely the ones who appeared on screen.
Bulletins, rolling news, editorial standards and the running of a newsroom across time zones.
Scheduling a bouquet, buying rights, and negotiating with studios and distributors.
Commissioning, development, production management and the making of series and films.
Uplinks, playout, studios, transmission and the move from tape to file to cloud.
Streaming platforms, apps, subscription mechanics, data and the technology beneath them.
Advertising, sponsorship, ad sales operations, pricing and the client relationships behind revenue.
Finding presenters and performers, managing them, and building the people who come next.
Running the group, moving it between countries, financing it and answering to its owners.
Six ways to take part
Most members start with one and add another later. None of them requires you to be looking for anything.
Add your name, your period and your function to the founding directory.
One profile. Thirty minutes.Record one interview about something you built or lived through.
One hour, once.Take occasional paid advisory calls in your area of expertise.
You set the availability.Join an assembled team on a commissioned build.
By mandate, when it suits you.Guide someone earlier in the career you already had.
A few hours a quarter.Name the people who must be in this network, and open the door.
Introductions only.What we promise you
This is the part that matters most, and it is not negotiable.
What we are asking for
Join the founding directory: your period, your function, what you built. Thirty minutes.
Sit for one recorded conversation about something you made happen. It becomes part of the archive.
Name three people who must be in this network — and, if you can, make the introduction.
The founding directory
Members who asked to be listed publicly. Everyone else is here too, privately.
No names yet. The first will appear here as members are approved.
Add your name
Five questions, about ten minutes. Nothing you write here is published — it goes to the directory, private by default.
MBC Alumni is an independent initiative created by former colleagues. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or a property of MBC Group. The MBC name is used here only to describe who this community is for. If the group chooses to support the project, that relationship will be stated openly on this page.
If you helped build any of this, you belong here — and so do the people you worked with. Please pass the link on.