TWOFOUR54 V DUBAI MEDIA CITY

Everyone has heard of Dubai Media City, well pretty much everyone in the UAE, yet how many people have heard about Twofour54? Twofour54 is a recently new development from the Abu Dhabi Government to create a media hub dedicated to Arabic content creation, across media platforms. This unique community will include film, broadcast, music, digital media, publishing and gaming and will play a key role in helping to position Abu Dhabi as the cultural hub of the Middle East. Its name, whilst confusing or even misleading to some is actually rather clever. It is simply the GPS location of Abu Dhabi.

Since 2007, when HH Sheikh Khalifa announced plans to establish a media free zone in Abu Dhabi, the country’s capital has seen an influx of some of the best media companies in the world descend on its doorsteps, eager to know more, such as; AOL Time Warner (CNN), the BBC, Pearson (FT), Bertelsmann (Random House) and NewsCorp (HarperCollins).

So, what are the fundamental differences between Dubai Media City, Dubai Internet City and Abu Dhabi’s upcoming Twofour54? Well, for starters, Abu Dhabi have a different strategy, for media to underpin culture.

Backed by Mubadala and chaired by Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Twofour54 will play a crucial role in the development of city as a cultural hub, especially with the recently launched Emirates Foundation that offers grants to support the arts, as well as  advanced science and technology, education, environmental protection and social development. In addition with the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) soon to be based in Abu Dhabi, the future is certainly looking bright and cultural for the UAE’s capital.