Sony launches Arabic producer

Sony Pictures Television is launching an Arabic production company headed by Elements TV founders Ziad Kebbi and Dany Karam.

The company – Sony Pictures Television Arabia – will target 22 Arabic speaking countries in the Middle East and North Africa from Morocco to Iraq and will be based in Dubai with offices in Cairo and Beirut.

SPT Arabia will represent Sony’s catalog of scripted and non-scripted formats that includes Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, Dragons’ Den, The Dating Game and Plain Jane.

Kebbi and Karam previously founded Elements TV in 2004 that produced local versions of Deal or No Deal, Take It or Leave It and The Celebrity Farm from its offices in Beirut and Dubai.

“The Arabic-speaking countries represent an exciting market for SPT with a growing appetite for high quality, scripted and non-scripted content. With our vast catalogue of library and current formats along with Ziad and Dany, who are two experienced and talented executives, we are now in an even stronger position to grow our production business across this important market,” said Kees Abrahams, president, international production, SPT.