“Awake” Faith in Lebanese TV Restored

This might upset many of my friends who work on TV series in Lebanon, but I absolutely despise all locally produced drama series. The dialog never feels authentic, the plots are always about matrimonial infidelity, the tired trope that Muslims and Christians love each other despite everything and other story lines that are either incredibly insensitive/offensive, or something you’d expect a western journalist to write after a conversation with a couple of taxi drivers.

I got invited by the amazing team behind “Awake” (thanks Nagham!) to their set, and spent a few hours watching a couple of scenes being shot last month. It was my first time on a drama series shoot, and I must say it was a far cry from the news and live talk show sets and studios I’m more accustomed to.

It didn’t hurt that many of the actors in the series are good friends of mine, but the real treat was when the director and assistant director let me into the editing room to watch the rough cut of episode 1. I was told I could see the first 15 minutes, but I couldn’t help myself and watched the episode in its entirety. Speechless for the most part, interrupted by laughter at the witty dialog every so often, and a mouth open at the quality of the shots, angles and editing of certain scenes such as the tasteful timelapses that help set the mood and scene.

Plot

Awake is about a young woman, Dana (Flavia Bechara), who wakes up from a coma 12 years later, unable to speak or really interact with others. Surrounded by her loving family, and with the help of her sisters Lama (Stephanie Atallah) and Jinane (Ruba Zaarour), she slowly comes to grips with what happened to her and how social media has taken over the world, and that’s when the epic, unexpected twists begin.

I just watched the first episode mind you, but I am already dying to know what happens next. Watching it, I felt it was shot in more of cinematic way, instead of just a set or two with characters talking. The locations where it was shot are all very familiar, and it’ll make you smile when you recognize them and relate to some of the scenes in them.

The dialog is something that stuck out as well for me. The way actors talk on Lebanese TV feels robotic, corny and cheesy most of the time. It never feels real or authentic. In Awake, you feel like you’re peering into the lives of real people in extremely weird situations. It’s how you probably talk with your friends when you’re hanging out, and for once, a local TV show doesn’t feel like an old-timey play, but a deep dive into our modern society in Lebanon.

The Details

It took 12 months to create the first season, which included 83 full days of shooting to produce 15, 1-hour episodes. All shooting locations were in Lebanon.

Cast:
• Flavia Bechara as Dana
• Tarek Yaacoub as Ghassan
• Mohamad Akil as Walid
• Raymonde Azar as Mariam
• Stephanie Atallah as Lama
• Ruba Zaarour as Jinane
• Joseph Bou Nassar as Dr Mehio
• Camille Salameh as Fawzi
• Lisa Debs as Nada

Created by: Nadia Tabbara
Directed by: Mazen Fayad
Produced by: Mohamed Fathallah and Mazen Fayad
Production & Distribution Company: Momaz Flick
Post Production Company: The Brightside
Director of Photography: Toni el Khazen
Music Composer: Nasser Shibani
Casting Director: Mia Deaibes
Editors: Youssef Germanos and Faisal Merheb
VFX Director: Nadine Yamout

Release Date: Later in 2018

MTV Lies About Being Rated First: Ramadan Edition

If you ever wondered what Fox News’ Sean Hannity would be like if he were a Lebanese woman, then please watch the clip below:

What Happened

MTV claimed, multiple times, that the shows it aired during Ramadan this year, were the most watched, number one, their usual self aggrandising delusions. This is like when they claim they are the top-rated and most-watched channel, which I have debunked with actual numbers many, many times on this blog. LBCI remains on top, with Al Jadeed a far second, and MTV consistently ranking 3rd, across the board. (Even in the “rich” segment they snobbishly pride themselves on attracting, they’re second btw)

How they Did It

The first way they did that, was by asking a handful of passerby on streets, same age, same area, what their favorite show aired during Ramadan was. It’s laughable that MTV thinks 1990s-radio style “What’s your favorite station?” questions in front of a branded microphone, qualifies as an actual ratings mechanism or accurate representation of the entire TV audience in Lebanon.

Compare MTV’s hand-picked, edited handful, to the 2500+ households statistics and rating companies usually survey in Lebanon, and it begins to explain why MTV attacks such organizations, evens ones it demanded be created.

The second way was that video I’ve embedded above. It’s hilarious how MTV has now moved to include not just their usual bitter enemy, IPSOS, but all statistics and ratings service providers, even companies it brought in to allegedly uncover the “bias” and as the super angry host in that segment described as “misinformation campaign”, whose results have been consistent with the results obtained by IPSOS and other groups.

They’ve become so desperate, that they used what they alleged are Google search queries, to prove that “Al Haiba” (aired on MTV) is the top search query, and thus proving they’re number one somehow.

What the angry host failed to mention though, is that giant pan-Arab station MBC also airs Al Haiba, and a full hour before MTV. It’s also available on their streaming service, Shahed.

So, as much as they’d like to believe that, most of those search queries happened from other Arab countries, who probably ended up watching it on MBC, or online, given they are searching online for a link to watch online, not on MTV or to help it try to prove a point no one is buying that they’re somehow top when it comes to Ramadan shows.

Nice Try Guys. Here are the Real Results.

As you can see, out of the top 5 spots, MTV’s Al Haiba only has the third spot, with the rest all held by shows that LBCI was airing. But hey, at least you did slightly better than Al Jadeed this time guys!

MTV’s Ratings Aren’t the Best Even with “High Social Class” and More

It has been quite the week for MTV. Here’s a quick timeline of what happened:

Their CEO admits they’re not highest rated or viewed, but have the “high quality” target audience that other stations “don’t reach”
MTV gets lambasted by the Lebanese public for the elitist comments, then using the word “dogs” from their official pages to describe their detractors
MTV continues their campaign to shut down voices that criticize them, after having started with Ayamserious, moved on to El 3ama and most recently Mawtoura
El 3ama’s removed video is returned, as-is two days later and page reactivated. We are still waiting to see what happens with Mawtoura and Ayamserious
MTV releases statement claiming they are with freedom of expression and deny it is them who reported (yeah, right)

Numbers, Numbers, Numbers

I got my hands on several IPSOS Lebanon reports about Lebanese TV stations, and I’m super happy to share them with you. They’re even worse than I expected for MTV, cause it turns out that even in the “high society” segment they think they’re the only ones that get, they’re behind other stations too.

This Week’s Numbers

AMR is “Average Minute Rating” which is the average number of individuals who have seen a specific program or day part

As is clearly shown, Monday night, LBC and Al Jadeed were ahead in AMR% compared to MTV. The time slot where one of their most popular shows airs, and in the midst of their scandals and the failed hashtags, they still got this earth-shattering low number: 6.1% which is close but lower than Al Jadeed’s 6.3% and almost half of LBCI’s Hawa El Horiye at 11.0%.

The Share of Audience According to Social Class

This was the piece of information I found the most ironic, where it clearly shows the “AB” social class that MTV thinks it’s the only one that can tap into, and leads among them, is actually demonstrably false. Must hurt.

SHR% — proportion of individuals viewing a specific program or day part compared to the total number of individuals watching TV at the same interval

As you can see, MTV’s SHR% is 27.8% while LBCI/LDC is at 41.0%, and Al Jadeed is at 20.0% with the social class “AB”. There’s one thing kinda true though, it’s the only social class MTV does better than Al Jadeed in, but they’re still far behind LBCI.

Month of January

As usual, LBCI is first with 39.1%, Al Jadeed at 27.1% and MTV at 17.9%. The pie chart next to it is cool too, which explains that more than half of TV viewers aren’t watching local TV stations, but stations from other countries on their satellite networks.

MTV is 3rd Every Day of the Week

Why They Think They’re Number 1

As you can see, the above is NOT actual ad sales, just the rate card these stations send out. A rate card is like a price list you send out to clients, it’s never the final price. Friends who work in the media buying industry know well that MTV often goes down to half the amount on their official rate card.

Another thing MTV does, is it works a lot on a barter basis. This means that they partner up with a car company for example, and get cars they can drive, or their houses furnished, or hotels detailed, etc. and they just add it to the ad sale revenues, explaining why the ad revenue seems so high, when that isn’t reflected in their spending and salaries, etc.

So, I can put my pole dancing rate card as 5 million USD, but that doesn’t make me the highest paid pole dancer in the world. Just another way MTV misleads people and advertisers to seem like they’re most viewed, best rated or highest priced. All of which are untrue.

Note: It’s Not Just IPSOS

Remember a few years ago when MTV didn’t trust IPSOS results, and demanded an audit happen and another company be brought in? Well, the audits showed that IPSOS stats were accurate, but nevertheless another stats company was launched that used to be called “GFK International” and is now called something else after the international company they were partnered with pulled out. In other words, this is the company MTV wanted to replace IPSOS, and guess what, I got to see the reports from that company, and they also place 3rd after LBCI and Al Jadeed. I won’t be posting it here, but please feel free to double check with anyone who has authorized access to it.

Note

I do this because MTV threatens many people’s way of lives with their deliberate misinformation and malicious campaigns against vulnerable individuals and communities in Lebanon. Every time they lie or throw a tantrum, I promise to be here to share the actual results and the rationale behind their erratic behavior.

MTV, please stop lying and focus on fixing the mistakes you usually ignore, and stop being a paid pen that shifts sides at lightning speed whenever someone throws money at you. *cough* plastic surgery clinic *cough* KSA.

MTV Going Crazy Over Bad Ratings Again

I’d hate to sound like a broken record, but MTV’s recurring insult to our intelligence doesn’t seem to be letting up.

It’s been well-documented that MTV prides itself on claiming it’s the number 1 TV station, even though it consistently ranks 3rd behind LBCI and Al Jadeed. They’ve been causing a fuss every time their ratings dip, like the whole “sharmoota” incident when MTV was outright cursing LBCI and calling women participating in a dating show “prostitutes”, all this because that show was crushing the ratings of their “Dancing with the Stars” show.

The Latest Chapter: IPSOS is Rigging Numbers

MTV aired this “report” last night. It claims that it has “evidence” that IPSOS is rigging ratings to benefit MTV competitors. The “evidence” they presented, is this cropped graph they showed:

It was based on a few minutes of outage on the Nilesat satellite. MTV considers their sinking to 0.2% (from about 3.8%) for a few minutes, while LBC’s dips considerably from almost 6% to just over 2.2%/. The MTV people thought that this means that the data is being rigged…

Given that this is the same channel that believes costume parties “satanic rituals” and “digital drugs” are an epidemic “affecting 200,000 people in Turkey”, it’s no surprise a detail so basic slipped their minds.

LBCI and LDC are two separate LBC feeds. LBCI is terrestrial, and LDC is via satellite (Nilesat). MTV is just on Nilesat. So, when weather conditions knocked the Nilesat feed off for a few minutes, MTV is definitely gonna dip close to 0%, since it only broadcasts via satellite. LBCI is part terrestrial, so that kept going, while the significant dip was the LDC satellite feed via Nilesat which went down just like MTV’s did.

That’s all the evidence they presented for that “report”. It’s kinda sad if you think how little they prepare their bluffs, given the authority and assumption of “criminal intent” when the reality is they just don’t know how to read a graph…

Why are they Doing This Now? Elections Season!

When MTV went crazy about the “sharmoota” stuff, the real reason wasn’t their sudden conversion to piety and humility in dresscode. It was that a lighthearted dating show was getting more viewers than their super expensive franchised show.

This time though, the reason is far more sinister. Elections in Lebanon are just a few months away, and the sad truth is that politicians pay top dollar to appear on talk shows on these stations. You would be priced a lot less if you’re third. Wouldn’t it be brilliant if you could dupe people into thinking you’re number 1? That’d be a lot of extra money, just ahead of the elections when politicians would have their chequebooks and pens at the ready.

For shame.

Why I Do This

You guys might think that it’s weird I go to such lengths to debunk and fact check the fake news MTV tries to peddle on unsuspecting viewers, and ultimately advertisers and politicians. The reason is because MTV is a mouthpiece of the intolerance and backwardness Lebanon needs to get over. They’re the people who start a smear campaign against some unknown taxpayer tweeting something silly, to put them in jail for a week. They’re the people who defame, shame and endanger communities they see as “undesirable” to their ultra-conservative base. They’re the reason you can’t have a psy-trance event in nature anymore without being arrested and smeared on TV. They’re the station that sides with a doctor being tried for malpractice, not the victim, a mother of two.

The misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia and stoking of sectarian fears as well as their unwillingness to correct false or factually inaccurate claims, are a threat to many of our ways of life. Why should a crooked TV station trying to jack prices for appearing on their shows decide what concerts and parties people can hold? Or what they can tweet or share with their friends, without being the targets of witch hunts that rob people of their freedom and dignity, so that MTV can try and get a bump in ratings?

As long as MTV is fighting against civil rights, equality and freedom of expression, I’ll always be here waiting to debunk their lies and counter their hate speech.

The Real Ratings of the Same Show on LBC and MTV

It’s like every other week, we get a whole new fuss about ratings on certain shows. MTV is particularly obsessed with ratings, making time on their nightly news bulletins to announce their alleged leadership in whatever category they choose. Remember the whole “s-word” debacle for their Dancing with the Stars vs Take Me Out thing?

Why MTV Hates Real Ratings

It’s no secret that the ratings ad buyers count on are something MTV isn’t particularly fond of, given that LBCI and Al Jadeed consistently rate better on it. Attempts to rock that boat in the past failed though, and even with auditors double-checking, the current IPSOS standard was adopted again by all major TV stations in Lebanon when it comes to pricing their ad slots.

MTV sometimes announces it is the “first”, but upon further inspection, they admit that these rankings are made by them, usually by walking around with a camera and MTV microphone asking passerby what their favorite TV station is at the moment.

Now, you don’t need me to explain how unscientific that is. Remember when we used to call up a radio station to enter a contest, and the presenter would ask “what’s your favorite station”, people obviously tended to say whatever station their voice was being heard on. I’m not sure a handful of people on the street’s answer with an MTV crew asking them is actually a standard to be trusted…

The Perfect, Bizarre Experiment

Anyway, in a cruel twist of fate, LBCI and MTV are airing the same show, in the same time slot, on the same day. It’s like the absolute best control experiment, where MTV can’t argue that the quality (or “high moral standards”) of their content is actually superior, regardless of the ratings.

I got my hands on the actual ratings for the two first episodes of “Alakat Khassa”, on July 3 and July 4 of 2017.

Here’s the %SHR (SHR% — Share — Proportion of individuals viewing a specific programme or daypart compared to the total number of individuals watching TV during the same time interval.)

On July 3, 19.6% of people watching TV were on LBCI, versus 8.0% on MTV. This means over 70% of total people watching this show, at the same time, were on LBCI, versus less than 30% on MTV.

On July 4, 56% of people were watching the show on LBC, versus 44% watching it on MTV.

Now, it’s just the first two shows, but the controversy that two stations are airing the same show at the same hour, had generated enough buzz that people were aware of this, and more people chose to watch it on LBCI over MTV.

One thing to note, is that air time on July 3rd was almost exactly the same. However, on July 4, MTV aired 36 minutes more. This means that the %SHR of July 4 for MTV was definitely gonna go higher than the day before, given more than 30 minutes extra, where folks might switch after the airing stopped on LBC.

By Territory

One interesting part was also how viewership of the two stations differs a lot from region to region in Lebanon. Overall, during the time of the show airing, LBCI had 17.3% of all TV viewers, and MTV had 10.2%. In Mount Lebanon, LBCI’s share was almost double MTV’s (22.3% vs 11.6%). In the Bekaa, MTV’s share was less than 2% of the total, with LBC having almost 12%.

If anything, this shows that LBCI’s audience is much more diverse and spread out across Lebanon, and that MTV falls behind in all territories and is severely lacking in places like the Bekaa and Mount Lebanon.

Why I Do This

I like keeping people honest, first. Second, what MTV stands for threatens the way of life of many people like us. To me, MTV is the kind of station that has a constant, malicious target on the youth’s back, attacking social justice issues in a conservative, patriarchal, intolerant way we hoped would go away by now.

They’re the kind of station that spends more than 6 minutes of their news defending a plastic surgeon under investigation for allegedly trying to cover up the circumstances of a patient’s death, by bashing those asking questions to try and keep the investigation honest, in a country known for botched and biased investigations…

The kind of station that frames refugees as the source of every single woe in Lebanon. The kind of station that leads witch hunts that land people in jail for a status or tweet, or being gay, or being from a minority group.

It’s natural that I don’t want this station making unsubstantiated claims about their supremacy, which in turn means more ad revenue. I prefer that money goes to a station with views that are closer to ours, who despite catering to the weird fetishes of Lebanese audiences like fortune-telling and stuff, would never call for blood after a homicide case, or fabricate stories about satanic worship and “digital drugs” to pander to their ultra-conservative base.

What I love most about these ratings though, is that they show the majority of Lebanese TV audiences aren’t the self-obsessed, intolerant type. That despite all the self-patting on the back by MTV, LBCI is still the most watched. This hopefully means less people listen to intolerant rhetoric every night around 8PM, and that means there is still hope for this country!

Full disclosure: I’ve never seen the show, and don’t even know what it’s about. Just using the numbers to draw conclusions.

IPSOS and Nielsen Television Audience Results for 2016

You guys loved the ratings posts I shared last month in trying to understand why TV stations’ behavior was becoming so juvenile. This week, IPSOS and Nielsen released their Television Audience Measurement Results for 2016. So, I picked out a few of their slides and I’m publishing them here with a couple of comments of my own on some. I feel this paints a clearer photo of the TV landscape, with some cool numbers on TV, smartphone, Internet and Social Meida penetration in Lebanon.

TV Users in Lebanon

Smartphone Users

Social Media Penetration

Ad Revenue Share in Lebanon vs Other Countries

What’s interesting is how low the share of digital ad spending is in Lebanon. Globally, in the US, UK and Western Europe, digital gets 36–39% of the share, tied to or slightly above TV ad spending. Even in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa) it’s at 17% whereas in Lebanon it’s at a tiny 8% compared to 46% for TV…

(I wish digital ad spending would increase, it’d make monetizing online projects and expanding them a lot more attractive)

Lebanese TV Stations

So, the MTV squad was right, it does make the most money when it comes to ads. However, if you combine the different LBC channels (LBCI, Drama, LB2) it still makes the most money from selling ads, with Al Jadeed a close second. Sorry guys!

Top Stations by Genre Throughout the Day

The top 3 stations rank first in the three “genres” studied when it comes to all-day totals. Al Jadeed is close first in political news, MTV is a close first in Social and Cultural programs and LBCI is way ahead of all of them in Series.

Local TV vs Satellite TV Performance

However, the only time local TV beats Satellite ones is from 7PM to 11PM.

Top Station by Genre at Peak Time

Accounting for that, the “top channels” at peak time are somewhat different.

News

Personally, I just watch local channels for the news, and here’s the evening news viewership slide.