News Desk
ABU DHABI: Sky News Arabia and Twitter announced today that the first-ever live Arabic news show on the social platform called #OnStream. The show will launch on February 26 as a weekly show covering general interest news from science and technology, to health, culture, sports and world news. It will air via Sky News Arabia’s Twitter account @SkyNewsArabia.
Produced and directed by Sky News Arabia and hosted by news anchors Carolina Nassar (@Carolina_Nassar) and Chantal Saliba (@ChantalSak) in rotation, the five-minute weekly show will feature guest experts and cover trending topics or videos on Twitter through different segments. Relevant Tweets will be presented to get real time feedback from viewers who will be invited to join the conversation by Tweeting with #OnStream. Tweet topics will be determined on the shoot day itself to showcase stories as they evolve and will be live streamed and accessible globally to logged-in and logged-out Twitter users and connected devices at no cost.
Abdou Gadallah, Deputy Head of News, Sky News Arabia said, “Introducing the first ever live Twitter original Arabic news show in the region is proof of Sky News Arabia’s digital first approach. Our new show #OnStream has been created to offer Twitter users a fresh and interactive experience and attract new audiences to engage with us. #OnStream provides a great opportunity for our viewers and followers to learn and discuss the latest trends from across the globe. We are excited about our partnership with Twitter which will undoubtedly add value to our audience.”
Kinda Ibrahim, Director of Media Partnerships, Twitter MENA said, “We’re excited to partner with Sky News Arabia around a show that’s built for Twitter in terms of content, format and hosts. With Twitter being one of the first places where people go for news, #OnStream will attract a young audience of mobile-first news consumers in a lighthearted and informative manner.”
The show’s clip highlights and live episodes will be available for sponsors as part of Twitter’s In Stream Video Sponsorship solution. These sponsorships will allow tailored audiences on Twitter; Arabic speakers interested in general interest news, to access and view the live episodes, which will appear as Promoted Tweets, while scrolling through their timelines.
Results of research by Toluna revealed that 72% of Twitter’s audience in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and Egypt consider the platform as one of their main sources of online video content and have previously watched live streamed content on the platform.
