Monte Carlo Doualiya

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Monte Carlo Doualiya (Arabic: مونت كارلو الدولية), formerly known as RMC Moyen-Orient (English: Radio Monte Carlo Middle East), is a French public radio service that broadcasts across the Arab world. It was founded in 1972 and, with Radio France Internationale, is part of France Médias Monde, the French state-owned holding company.

It produces Arabic programmes in Paris, and airs 24 hours per day to audiences in the Middle East and Maghreb over local FM transmitters, shortwave, satellite and on its website.

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (February 2013)

In the late 1960s, the French state wanted to create an international pan-Arab radio station broadcasting to the Middle East in order to catch up with the United Kingdom, the United States and the USSR. The Société Financiere de Radiodiffusion (SOFIRAD), which managed the state's holdings in radio and television stations, decided to use Radio Monte-Carlo, which already had a good reputation throughout the Mediterranean basin and in which it was the majority shareholder with 84%.^[2]

InJune 1968, after obtaining the agreement of Prince Rainier III of Monaco, contacts were made with Nicosia Radio to establish a broadcasting antenna on Cape Greco in Cyprus. In February 1969, SOFIRAD and the French Broadcasting and Television Office formed the Monegasque Society for Broadcasting Studies (SOMERA) which was to study the project and its implementation. A year later, in 1970, SOMERA was replaced by the Monegasque Society for Exploitation and Broadcasting Studies (SOMERA) which was to complete the project.

Radio Monte-Carlo Middle East (RMC Middle East) began broadcasting in 1972. It became the leader of international radio stations in various countries in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf, such as Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. SOMERA, which manages RMC Middle East, is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the tune of 28 million francs per year. However, French radio increasingly faced competition from its English-speaking rivals BBC World Service and Voice of America, as well as from the arrival of new local radio stations. This situation, combined with a chronic deficit and a sharp drop in advertising revenue, made a major restructuring of the radio station necessary in the 1990s.

At the end of 1996, SOFIRAD sold RMC Moyen-Orient to the Radio France Internationale group for a symbolic 1 franc. Its audience was then estimated at 16 million people. The radio station, which had previously been broadcast on medium wave, short wave and by satellite, began to broadcast on FM in some countries. In 1998, after moving to the Maison de la Radio in Paris, it was the first public radio station to switch to all- digital.^[3]

In 2005, RMC Middle East's audience was eroded by the proliferation of local FM stations in Baghdad, Basra, Mosul, Djibouti and Kuwait, as well as competition from pan-Arab and American radio and television stations. In November, a new team was appointed with Philippe Beauvillard as general manager and Agnès Levallois as news director. In addition, the schedule, considered aging, was modernized and strengthened to rejuvenate the radio's audience, 50% of which was over 35 years old.^[2][4][5]

At the end of 2006/beginning of 2007, the radio station changed its name to Monte Carlo Doualiya.

THEApril 4, 2008, the holding company Audiovisuel extérieur de la France was created under the impetus of the President of the Republic Nicolas Sarkozy, elected the previous year. The aim was to group together the activities of France's external audiovisual sector under the same company, namely the television channels TV5 Monde and France 24, and the radio station Radio France Internationale, of which Monte Carlo Doualiya was the subsidiary,.

InJanuary 2012, Monte Carlo Doualiya ceases to be a subsidiary of Radio France Internationale when it becomes a fully-fledged channel of the Audiovisuel extérieur de la France alongside Radio France Internationale and France 24. The legal merger of the group with its channels is effective on February 13, 2012.

In 2013, the radio station launched its own website and adopted a new programme schedule. TheJune 3, on the occasion of Marseille-Provence 2013 and the opening of the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations, Radio France Internationale and Monte Carlo Doualiya are launching a temporary bilingual radio station in Marseille called La Méditerranée ensemble. It broadcasts Monte Carlo Doualiya programs in Arabic from noon to 6 p.m., and Radio France Internationale programs in French the rest of the day.

• « Pour le dialogue entre les cultures » (2006 - 2010)
• « La radio qui va changer la radio » (2010 - 2013)
• « Sur la même longueur d'onde » (depuis 2013)

From 1996 to 2012, the Chairman and CEO of Monte Carlo Doualiya was that of its parent company, Radio France Internationale. Since 2012, the CEO of Monte Carlo Doualiya has been that of its parent company, France Médias Monde (formerly Audiovisuel extérieur de la France).

RMC Moyen-Orient and then Monte Carlo Doualiya are the trade names of the Société Monégasque d'exploitation et d'études de radiodiffusion (SOMERA). From 1972 to 1996, the latter was 90% owned by the Société financière de radiodiffusion (SOFIRAD), which manages the French State's interests in radio and television stations, and the remainder by Monaco  ​​.

From 1996 to 2012, the radio was a subsidiary of the Radio France Internationale group, an independent national programming company until 2008 when it joined the Audiovisuel extérieur de la France.

Since 2012, Monte Carlo Doualiya has been a subsidiary of the national programming company France Médias Monde (formerly Audiovisuel extérieur de la France), 100% owned by the French State via the State Participation Agency (APE).

From 1996 to 2012, the radio station was a subsidiary of the Radio France Internationale group, from which it received its budget. Since 2012, it has been a subsidiary of France Médias Monde (formerly Audiovisuel extérieur de la France). The latter distributes its budget between its channels: France 24, Radio France Internationale and Monte Carlo Doualiya.

In 2005, the budget of RMC Middle East was 11 million euros, financed by its parent company, Radio France Internationale, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The radio's headquarters were located in the Palais de la Scala, at 1 avenue Henry Dunant in Monaco.

After becoming a subsidiary of Radio France Internationale in 1996, RMC Moyen-Orient moved to the Maison de la Radio located at 116 avenue du Président-Kennedy ⁱⁿ the 16th  arrondissement of Paris.

In February 2013, Monte Carlo Doualiya and Radio France Internationale are moving to join France 24 in the France Médias Monde building (then named Audiovisuel extérieur de la France) in Issy-les-Moulineaux, in Hauts-de-Seine.

In 2006, RMC Middle East employed nearly 150 people, including 45 journalists in Paris and 46 correspondents worldwide.

In 2013, Monte Carlo Doualiya employed 48 permanent journalists based in Paris, and relied on a network of 67 correspondents around the world.^[6]

In 2014, the Monte Carlo Doualiya editorial team had 68 full-time equivalents, out of the 1,714 employed by France Médias Monde.

• Official website (in Arabic)

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