MBC Group (Arabic: مجموعة إم بي سي, romanized: Majmūʿat ʾIm Bī Sī), formerly known as Middle East Broadcasting Center (مركز تلفزيون الشرق الأوسط, Markaz Tilifizyūn al-Sharq al-ʾAwsaṭ), is a Saudi media conglomerate based in the Riyadh region.
[5][6][1] MBC Group operates over 19 free-to-air satellite TV channels, and a video-on-demand service (Shahid).
These cuts were driven in part due to advertising not covering production costs and the failure to acquire exclusive rights to the Saudi league.
This move marked a significant step in the company's financial strategy and opened up new avenues for investment and growth.
Recently, the channel produced a new game show called "Graduate in a Day", similar in concept to "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" for children and their parents.
MBC 4 is aimed primarily at Middle Eastern women and offers a broad mixture of K-Dramas, US and UK shows, comedy and drama series, films, as well as gameshows, movies, magazines, plus news and current affairs programming, in addition to Korean, K-Dramas, Indian, Turkish, Pakistani and Mexican dramas dubbed into Arabic.
It delivers Western series, movies, action reality shows as well as Japanese anime and sports programs.
Some of its prime time shows include The Mentalist, The Vampire Diaries, Fringe, Supernatural, Power Rangers, V, WWE and True Blood.
MBC Drama is distinguished by the two additional repeats throughout the day, offering its viewers the choice of time, based on their various lifestyles and viewership trends.
Programmes focus on localised, Iraqi productions in drama, comedy and socio-cultural premium entertainment shows.
Launched in May 2023, MBC Loud FM airs English music and is the first international CHR station in the KSA.
[18] In 2018, MBC established its own production studio to produce film and television series targeting at Middle-Eastern audiences.
[22] In 2017, a number of owners and board members of MBC were summoned to Riyadh where they were arrested, accused of corruption, and locked in the Ritz-Carlton.
[23] A "senior MBC executive" was cited by Arabian Business stating that Waleed al-Ibrahim was found innocent of any wrongdoing.
Popular Egyptian comedian Shaimaa Seif has done a number of programs on MBC using blackface and stereotypes for humor.
[25] In the days following Yahya Sinwar's death in October 2024, MBC aired a report labeling Sinwar, along with Hamas's Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah, PMF's Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and Iran's Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, as "faces of terrorism" who had been killed in the first quarter of the 21st century.
In Baghdad, supporters of Iran-backed armed groups stormed the channel's local offices, filming themselves as they vandalized equipment and destroyed computers.
[26] Hours later, Iraqi regulators suspended the license of the Saudi-owned channel and began proceedings to terminate its operating rights in Iraq.
[26][27] Shortly afterwards Algeria also suspended MBC's license to operate in the country, reportedly for "portrayal of the wars in a way that weakens the morale of Palestinian and Lebanese people".