According to the Saudi Arabia's Undersecretary for Information Abdul Rahman Al-Hazaa, the kingdom accounts for 45% of the advertising market in the Gulf, which is now worth S$2.2 billion in total. "I expect that the Kingdom will soon rank 43 in the global advertising market, with a total volume of over $2 billion," said Sami Raffoul, founder of the Pan Arab Research Centre.

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Saudi Arabia has unveiled plans to launch a weather forecast channel. The channel, which will be launched by the the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME) under the supervision of the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Culture and Information, will provide weather updates every hour. 

Prince Turki bin Nasser, chief of the PME said the channel would play a key role in increasing environmental awareness, especially because parts of the Kingdom were hit by heavy rains and floods over the past few years. “The PME has 18 branch offices and 32 weather forecast centers across the Kingdom. They are extending the best possible services to all the concerned departments by supplying weather forecasts and related information,” he said.

Read More at ArabNews.com

Ipsos has launched an online panel in Saudi Arabia, as part of its plan to set up several online panels in the MENA region. The next two panels are set to launch in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates this year. The panels will be run by Ipsos Interactive Services, which is led by director Nader Kobeissi. “Our ultimate goal is to build our own panels for all the markets in which Ipsos operates and thus ensure equal data quality among the different countries,” said Kobeissi. 

Read More at Research-Live.com

The Pan Arab Research Center has released its annual report revealing regional ad spending statistics for 2011. According to the PARC's findings, the region demonstrated resilience and stability in the wake of the Arab Spring as advertising revenues totaled US$14.3 billion in 2011 (a 4% increase). According to the PARC's findings, the UAE has regained its status as the leading advertising market in the region, demonstrating a 1% growth. However, the region has suffered considerably due to the political/economic situation. The UAE and Saudi Arabia were the only regional markets that demonstrated positive growth rates.

To download the PARC report, click here 

According to data from the Pan Arab Research Centre, the UAE has regained its status as the region's largest advertising market in 2011, as the UAE saw $1.44 billion in ad spending this year. Saudi Arabia came second in the region, with a 9% gain in ad spend. "Only Saudi Arabia and the UAE out of the monitored markets in the region posted growth," said M. Shaharyar Umar at the Pan Arab Research Centre. Meanwhile, Egypt's ad spending plummet by nearly 40% as the country experienced political turmoil.

Read more at GulfNews.com 

A new home-cinema service is making its way to Saudi Arabia.  The Saudi Telecom Company's (STC) is expected to launch a movie service via their IPTV service that will feature the latest of Hollywood films. According to a company representative, STC has "confirmed all the Hollywood studios. They're bringing on board the best of Hollywood entertainment, from Warner, Disney, Sony and Paramount. There's one more to go, which is Universal. But all the others are signed up". The new service is expected to quadruple IPTV subscriptions in Saudi Arabia. 

Read More at thenational.com

So far, twelve media firms have been licensed by the General Saudi Committee for Municipal Elections to organize and run the election campaigns. The number of licenses to be granted to media establishments is expected to rise in the next few days. The campaigns are due to start Sunday and continue for a period of 11 days. The committee will be announcing the final list of candidates on Saturday.

Read more on Saudi Gazette.