Rupert Murdoch is cooperating with News Corp investor, Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, to launch two free-to-air channels serving Arabia; one for movies, the other for US shows. Fox Movies will launch in May and the second channel will air in  Autumn. James Murdoch and Prince al-Waleed discussed the deal when the two met at the Prince’s Riyadh, Saudi Arabia headquarters in January.

It has been reported that the channels will be owned by Fox, but will depend on Prince al-Waleed’s Rotana staffers based in Dubai for management, and ad-sales for income. Ad revenues will be shared. The channels will be uplinked to NileSat from Cairo.

The decision is adds more pressue to pay-TV broadcasting in the region. ART, Orbit and Showtime are still trying to gain a meaningful income out of pay-TV. This has become especially challenging with upwards of 250 free channels now broadcasting, and plenty of them providing quality programming.

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