[SatBroadcasting(tm)] Abu Dhabi Media Investment Corp (ADMIC), a private investment company owned by HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB), the UK’s leading pay television provider, have formed a 50-50 joint venture to bring a new, free-to-air Arabic-language news channel to viewers across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region from 2012.

Based in Abu Dhabi, the new company will operate under the Sky News brand. BSkyB became Europe’s first 24-hour news channel in 1989. The venture will provide comprehensive coverage of the regional and international news agenda through a 24-hour channel offering rolling news and current affairs programming, as well as a video-rich website and mobile applications. Content for the channel, website, and mobile applications will be created and delivered by more than 180 multimedia journalists, supported by a full technical and operations team. The venture will be based in new studios to be developed at Abu Dhabi’s twofour54 media zone. In addition, it will have a network of newsgathering bureaux across MENA, further offices in London and Washington DC, and access to Sky News’ wider network of international bureaus.

Adrian Wells, previously Sky News’ Head of International News, has been appointed to work with the ADMIC team to launch the new channel and a Director of News will be appointed in due course to lead the venture on a permanent basis. The joint venture with ADMIC provides Sky News with an opportunity to enter the large and fast-developing MENA marketplace with the support and expertise of a respected local partner. The new channel will represent a significant expansion in the international operations of Sky News, which currently broadcasts in English to viewers in over 90 million homes in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.