Group ONE Holdings And Media City Qatar Announce Strategic Long-Term Global Partnership

Today at the Qatar Economic Forum, powered by Bloomberg, Group ONE Holdings (ONE) and Media City Qatar signed a Memorandum of Understanding (“MoU”) to develop a strategic long-term partnership, collaborating in the production and development of a wide range of global content in Qatar across multiple media sectors, including original programming, studio shows, and esports, that will strengthen Qatar’s growing media ecosystem.

The partnership will commence by showcasing Qatar in the filming of Season 2 of the popular Netflix series The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition, a business reality show streamed in more than 150 countries.

Season 1 of The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition garnered an estimated 4 million viewers on its premiere broadcast night in 2021, outperforming other top-rated reality competition premieres, and was Asia’s most watched English-language reality premiere in 2021. The show also took home awards for “Best Non-Scripted Entertainment” and “Best Adaptation of an Existing Format” at the Asian Academy Creative Awards last year.

ONE and Media City are also in discussions to develop and produce live sports programming, including studio shows that will enhance Qatar’s production capabilities while attracting world-class media companies and talent to the country. Leveraging Qatar’s strong infrastructure and global connectivity, ONE and Media City plan to create an esports hub for developers and other key stakeholders across the gaming ecosystem.

Sheikh Ali bin Abdullah bin Khalifa Al-Thani, CEO of Media City Qatar, stated: “We are very excited to announce a partnership with Group ONE Holdings which will bring a global content creator to Doha and strengthen Qatar’s media ecosystem. Media City is focusing on enabling innovative, creative media to flourish in Qatar and this partnership will be strategic in achieving this objective. We expect that this partnership will also create a path for other global IP content creators to consider Qatar as a hub to build their presence.”

Chatri Sityodtong, Chairman and CEO of Group ONE Holdings, stated: “This partnership is extremely strategic as it marks our foray into the Middle East, a key market for ONE across all of our content offerings: general entertainment, martial arts, and esports. We are excited to bring ONE closer to all our fans in Qatar and across the Middle East. Media City has big ambitions of establishing Qatar as a global media hub and we are committed to enhancing this vision while building world-class content in Qatar to serve millions of fans around the world.”

About Media City
Media City Qatar is an emerging global home for media companies, entrepreneurs, innovators, and creative talent. Media City’s vision is “to be a collaborative home for talent, innovation and achievement, and a regional leader in the media industry, contributing to Qatar’s economic diversification”. The organization accelerates the evolution of regional media, to create a powerful and innovative ecosystem, where exceptional ideas and content thrive.

Media City is a newly established licensing platform aims at building a nurturing environment bringing together successful and innovative media companies, startups and industry professionals from the region and from the world. Media City is established to become a hub for traditional and digital media, technology, communications, research, and development. From broadcasting to traditional and digital newspapers, from gaming to user generated content, from audio to advanced technologies, Media City welcomes organizations and professionals across multiple media segments.

About Group ONE Holdings
Group ONE Holdings (ONE) is Asia’s largest global sports media platform with a broadcast to 150+ countries around the world. According to Nielsen, ONE ranks among the world’s top 10 biggest sports media properties for viewership and engagement. Through its marquee sports properties (ONE Championship and ONE Esports) and its passionate millennial community, ONE is a celebration of Asia’s greatest cultural phenomena, martial arts and gaming, and the deeply rooted Asian values of integrity, humility, honor, respect, courage, discipline, and compassion. ONE can be viewed on many of the largest global free-to-air and digital broadcasters, including Amazon Prime Video Sports, ELEVEN Sports, Star Sports, Beijing TV, iQIYI, One Sports, Abema, IB, NET TV, Vidio, Startimes, Mediapro, Thairath TV, VieOn, Skynet, Mediacorp, Spark Sport, Match TV, Dubai Sports, RedeTV and more.