Saudi prince’s TV news network to be based in Bahrain

Alwaleed’s channel, dubbed Alarab, will be based in the Bahraini capital Manama’s new Media City office complex. The network is expected to be launched next December with an initial staff of about 300. Alwaleed’s office has not itself said where the channel will be based.

The channel aims to focus “on the important shifts taking place across the Arab world, with an emphasis on freedom of speech and freedom of the press,” Alwaleed said in September.

The new channel will compete against pan-Arab news networks bankrolled by wealthy Gulf backers, including Qatar’s Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, which is funded by Saudi investors but based in Dubai.

Alwaleed has signed a deal with business news service Bloomberg to provide content for Alarab. That could potentially also put it in competition with Dubai-based business news channel CNBC Arabiya.

The Saudi prince, through the Kingdom Holding investment firm he controls, has a major stakes in Apple, Citigroup and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

He and the investment company last week invested a combined $300 million (£194m) in microblogging site Twitter, which played a key role in conveying developments during this year’s Arab Spring uprisings.

The senior management of Alwaleed’s Rotana entertainment TV division is expected to move to Bahrain as part of the deal.

Bahrain has been shaken by ten months of large-scale protests, and clashes between security forces loyal to the Sunni monarchy and opposition groups led by the country’s majority Shiites.

The kingdom’s leadership is closely allied to Saudi Arabia, which looms large in Bahrain’s domestic politics. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states sent security forces into Bahrain to help put down the protests in March.