News Corp and Moby Group have signed an agreement under which News Corp is to become a minority investor in the Dubai-headquartered media firm. According to the terms of the deal, News Corp will contribute its 50% shareholding in Broadcast Middle East (BME) for a minority shareholding in Moby. It will also provide growth capital to Moby for its expansion plans.

The agreement "will enable Moby to strengthen its leadership position across the regions in which it currently operates whilst working to expand its presence in new and emerging markets," the companies said in a joint statement.

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Rupert Murdoch has opened an account on micro-blogging platform Twitter. Murdoch, who is the owner of News Corp., now has more than 40,000 followers on the site. The media mogul has tweeted about a range of subjects, including politics and movies. Murdoch himself was openly criticized via the social media platform when the News of the World scandal broke earlier this year.

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According to The National, plans to launch the Arabic-language station based in Abu Dhabi, Sky News Arabia, are still on despite the phone hacking scandal in the UK rocking Rupert Murdoch's News Corp empire.

Sky News Arabia is a 50/50 joint venture with BSkyB and the Abu Dhabi Media Investment Corporation (Admic). Both organisations remain committed to the launch," Sky News Arabia said in a statement. News Corp already owns a 39% stake in BSkyB. But last week it abandoned a $12.6bn bid for full control of the company.

Google Inc has entered into preliminary negotiations to acquire online video portal Hulu, Los Angeles Times has reported, citing people familiar with the situation. Google is making a major push to add professionally produced content to its mix of user-created videos on YouTube.

Google Inc has hired industry veterans to help the internet search giant make inroads and strike deals. Hulu, owned by Walt Disney Co, News Corp, Comcast Corp's NBC Universal and Providence Equity Partners, offers free online access to prime time television shows.

Arabian Business reports that Iran has closed the Tehran office of a television channel partly owned by News Corp and operated by a Dubai-based firm and arrested five employees for “helping the anti-revolutionary movement”, the semi-official Mehr news agency said on Tuesday. Iranian authorities were in the past critical of the channel, saying its programmes were contradictory to Iran’s Islamic and revolutionary values and stated that they would close down publications that carry news of the opposition movement.

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The National reports that Rupert Murdoch’s Fox International Channels plans to launch additional entertainment channels next year. Now broadcasting 12 channels in the MENA region, including Fox Movies, Fox Series and Star World, Fox plans to convert all of its regional broadcasts to high definition by 2012. The company intends to pursue its strategy of broadcasting across both pay-TV and advertising-driven free-to-air platforms.

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Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is a major investor in News Corp, and in return Rupert Murdoch took a 9% stake in Alwaleed’s Rotana music-to-movies TV channel empire. RapidTVNews reports that there have been many discussions over the past few weeks whereby News Corp’s may exercise its option to take a larger stake in Rotana.

News Corp certainly has options to increase its stake in Rotana, and the rumours in Cairo are that News Corp wants a greater say in Rotana’s overall output including Alwaleed’s Arabic film library. The same rumours suggest that the pair want to stay in free-to-air TV at the moment, which is where the mass-market audience is.

The ramifications may be starting. It is reported that an official sent by Murdoch visited Cairo in January and laid off 49 Rotana staff. Rotana has also pulled out of a $1.5m annual rental of studio space at Egypt’s giant Media Production City and has switched production to Beirut.

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According to Gulf News, Rupert Murdoch, the Chairman & CEO of News Corp, has urged Arab governments to ease censorship on inconvenient and unwelcome stories during his speech at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit. His thoughts on boosting the media sector through easing protectionism laws could pave the way to economic diversification in the Arab world. The decision for greater openness will further enhance creativity, and thus encourage creative content that is significant to the Arab community.

His company has recently made moves into the market to ensure it is part of that growth, including the purchase of a 9 per cent stake in Saudi entertainment giant Rotana, with an option to double its purchase in the next 18 months.

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