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Biz channels new attitude
A weekly television business programme will focus on the global impact of the Middle East; presenters John Defterios and Debra Kocher talk to City Times
AT THE age of seven, he knew what he wanted and went for it. As for her, even in college she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do in life. He came to the exciting world of TV through passion. For her, the route was less direct.
But both John Defterios and Debra Kocher started their careers with their first internships at CNN, though separately. And together they have worked on some of the network’s notable programmes.
Growing up near Santa Barbara, California, getting hooked on TV early in life, Defterios was inspired by Vince Scully, America’s greatest baseball broadcaster. By the time he was seven, he knew what he was going to do in life: be a TV presenter. True to his vision, he has morphed into a reputed business presenter, having interviewed, among others, Ronald Reagan, Tony Blair, Richard Branson, Opec ministers, Manmohan Singh, over 30 other government leaders and scores of Fortune 500 companies.
Debra Kocher, on the other hand, didn’t know she wanted to be a journalist. In 1980, it was while studying in Leningrad, Russia, that her desire to seek out news from around the world that the thought first came to her to be a journalist. Returning home, she enrolled at Columbia University for her business and communication course. She started as an intern even before finishing graduate school, and has never looked back. Today, Debra is Vice-President of CNN International.
Over the years, John and Debra have worked together on many of CNN’s programmes, she as executive producer and he as the presenter. Now both are coming back together again for the network’s latest groundbreaking weekly TV programme: CNN’s Marketplace Middle East, beginning from September 28.
Aired twice on Fridays and repeated on Saturday and Sunday, the 15-minute programme will feature the latest business news from the Middle East, alongside stock, currency, commodity and bond market updates and in-depth interviews and profiles of major players from the region's business community. The show will also spotlight particular industry sectors and economic trends influencing business developments in the region.
It will also highlight the global players investing in this rapidly growing region, as well as those within the region that are reaching out to build new alliances. This is the first business programme dedicated to any one region. Debra Kocher and John Defterios talked to City Times in this interview about their forthcoming business programme.
What has prompted CNN to launch this programme, especially one focusing on the Middle East?
Debra Kocher: We feel the impact of the Middle East in global business is growing hugely. Its impact outside the region is growing in importance; the interest outside the region in investing here and knowing more about what’s making this region tick is growing all the time. And this is something that will serve our audience, which comprise business viewers, movers and shakers, decision-makers and companies, in terms of their knowledge base.
John Defterios: If you look at the size of business transactions in the Middle East over the last four months and of Middle East players going into Asia, into America, Europe, South-East Asia — then you will see that these transactions have been phenomenal. So I think the timing of the programme is right. It’s perfectly timed because of the emergence of the Middle East on a global scale.
Do you think the business volume as a whole in the Middle East is big enough to warrant special focus on it?
Debra Kocher: While we don’t have the exact figures, business in the Middle East runs into billions of dollars covering a whole range of sectors including the construction and oil industries. And the current level of investment from the region out in the world is phenomenal with the number of different companies from the region looking to diversify growing every day.
John Defterios: There are two sides to this. The capital that was traditionally in currency and bond markets has been taken out and redeployed in very large equity states, such as in companies like EADS. Secondarily, that money has been redeployed into development throughout the region. So it’s quite a substantial change over the last five years. Such is the significance of this level of activity, the region really does warrant its own programme. At the same time, we are not just covering business from within the Gulf or across the Middle East, but linking that activity to the global investor who is showing a keen interest to see what’s actually taking place here.
What’s the aim behind CNN Marketplace Middle East?
John Defterios: Basically, the aim is to spot the trends that are taking place in the region, the emerging competitions from Dubai, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other places, how they compete against each other: will they have individual selling propositions, or are they all going to be financial centres, or are they going to diversify into other sectors and whether that’s going to have a lasting impact on the region. We will also look at topics like the problem of unemployment which needs to be addressed in the next 5 to 10 years, particularly at the lower age brackets of society. We want to get to grips with the plans for sustainable growth that could make a huge change for the region. This is the heart of what we’re talking about on the show. Plus, there are lots of capital flows and multi-billion dollar deals that will make the region a very vibrant trade block competing with the US, Europe, Asia, and China in the future.
How have you designed the content and focus of the new programme?
Debra Kocher: It’s a 15-minute programme. It’ll be in two major segments. We will have the headlines and we will cover the markets, whether currency, stock or gold etc. Then there will be a main business story of the week. For instance, like the Dubai Holding investment in MGM. This story might also feature an interview, depending on the main players of the company we book for the programme. Then we will have headlines of other stories, trends that are happening. Something like ‘In Focus’, looking at a specific industry. Of course, it’s not going to be same format every week. It will depend on what the news is.
John Defterios: It’s a pretty exciting window to think that a network of CNN’s calibre is dedicating a weekly programme to only one region and see how this region interfaces with the major players around the world. This is something we wouldn’t have embarked on five years ago. But it shows the crucial role this region and the individual companies and governments are playing internationally now. It’s a big big change from just a couple of years ago. It’s reminiscent of when the world woke up to China 8 or 10 years ago. All of a sudden the Chinese were investing in the US and in Europe, and Americans, South Americans and Europeans were trying to get into China, to tap into its big market. We’re seeing the same kind of thing in the Middle East now.
Where will the new programme be broadcast from?
John Defterios: It’ll be broadcast from London all over the world. London is a very good bridge for this programme, because the investment bankers and the equity analysts that they use from this region are based in London. So it’s a kind of natural financial centre and partner for the Middle East players. They all pass through London quite regularly. So we think it’s a good way to link East and West in terms of stories.
Debra Kocher: At the same time, we’ll make a concerted effort to find really diverse and fresh stories and people from throughout the Gulf and the Middle East, including Turkey, Egypt, Libya and other nations. We’ll cover the broader Middle East in the context of the world today.
What’s your target audience for this programme?
Debra Kocher: CNN’s audience has always been what we call the ‘global citizen’. These are people with English usually as the second language — but who are very fluent in English. They’re decision-makers in their companies and influencers in governments. They have money to spend on themselves and their businesses, and are business travellers, well educated and live in cities.
John Defterios: Let me add that intellectually, they’re the decision-makers within governments and within the business community who are looking to spot trends around the world. Our idea is to open up a new avenue for investment and knowledge that was perhaps overlooked in the past. To paraphrase, we believe that this region punches above its weight, meaning it has a bigger impact than one might have imagined, considering its population.
How will CNN Marketplace Middle East be different than other business programmes?
Debra Kocher: None of our other business programmes specialise in the Middle East, and they are not 15-minute weekly programmes. We’ve some daily programmes which cover all of business news for the world. And we’ve some weekly programmes that have some business sections in them, like “Inside Africa.” But this is the first time we have done a 15 minutes weekly business programme and the Middle East is the first territory we have chosen for this.
John Defterios: Our programme is about how we look at the Middle East and its relationship around the world from a business and investment perspective. It is part of the natural evolution of the global economy. You know, individual companies can’t just look at their own borders. They are looking beyond their borders for new opportunities. So Marketplace Middle East will open a new kind of avenue to what investments are available there and the implications of those investments. So we’ll open avenues to cover stories of inter-Arab and inter-Gulf trade which I think is quite interesting. We will also look at the relationship between the region and outside the region and the interaction, for example, between China, India, and other Asian countries, European countries and US countries into the region as well. The Middle East is not just a place that creates a lot of money because of its oil revenues, but there’s a lot of trade and cross investment taking place. There’re also a lot of bilateral relationships, bilateral trade and bilateral investments that are taking place. And this is not being told as a story. So our signature will be to provide analyses and to spot trends of investments taking place, both inbound and outbound, throughout the region. In essence, if you want to know what’s happening with the Middle East and its outbound and inbound investments, then that’s our programme. In fact, we want the Marketplace Middle East to be the point of reference for the international investor.
Why has CNN thought of launching this programme now?
Debra Kocher: We have had a programme called ‘Inside the Middle East’ for four years. It is a very well received programme around the world, especially in the region and brings a fresh perspective to viewers of the region. We now want to build on the success of that show and grow our business coverage in the region. Business news is one of CNN’s core brands, something that we do very very well and have done for many years. We have a programme ‘World Business Today’, a daily business news programme which we have been doing since 1990. So we have a reputation in business news. We feel the time is right now, to create this weekly business programme for the Middle East because of the growing importance of this region, inside and outside.
John Defterios: If we had done this programme five years ago, it would have been premature, because Dubai was emerging but all the other players around it were not. Now we have a kind of collective weight of investment happening, inbound and outbound. International viewers are now quite interested in looking at the investment strategies of these different countries right now. So it’s good to start to reveal what is taking place and who are the players driving this change.
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