Bloomberg launches flagship show from Dubai finance hub

Long-standing European anchor Manus Cranny (R) relocates to Dubai from London to co-anchor the channel's new primetime morning show with Yousef Gamal El-Din. (Photo courtesy of Bloomberg)

LONDON: Bloomberg Television has launched its new morning show “Daybreak: Middle East” from its studios in Dubai in a move that aims to further strengthen the financial information provider’s presence in the region.
Bloomberg’s flagship Daybreak multi-platform show already broadcasts from Hong Kong, London, New York, and Sydney. The new Middle East edition will help bridge the gap between the Asia and European trading days.
Al Mayers, global head of Bloomberg Television and Radio, said that the program will offer viewers “the latest market, business and financial news through a regional lens, in line with other versions of the series.”
Daybreak broadcast for the first time on March 19, and replaces the existing show “Bloomberg Markets: Middle East.” The program will air every weekday at 8 a.m. from Sunday to Thursday on Bloomberg TV and Radio.
Bloomberg’s European anchor Manus Cranny has relocated to Dubai from London to co-anchor the show alongside Yousef Gamal El-Din, who joined Bloomberg in 2016. Cranny will also continue to co-anchor “Bloomberg Daybreak: Europe” from Dubai, alongside Anna Edwards in London.
“With Manus Cranny joining the team in the Middle East, we continue to expand our growing network of more than 80 reporters, analysts and economists across 12 bureaus in the Middle East and provide our viewers with greater access to key decision makers — such as our recent interview with Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, his first since being released from detention,” Mayers told Arab News.
He said that with Cranny’s relocation to Dubai there will be an additional 90 minutes of daily, weekday programming broadcast from Bloomberg’s TV studios in the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC). Tracey Alloway, the executive editor of Bloomberg Markets, will also be broadcasting from Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
The additional broadcast output from Dubai is just the latest move in Bloomberg’s expansion plans in the Middle East.
Last September, Bloomberg signed an agreement with Saudi Research and Marketing Group — the publisher of Arab News — to set up a multi-platform Arabic language business and financial news service.
The service aims to provide Arabic-speaking audiences around the world with news and analysis on companies and markets as well as economic and political news relevant to the Middle East region.
At the time of signing, Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg L.P. and former mayor of New York City said the Middle East was “an important, economically diverse region,” and that the agreement would help his company reach “a critical audience of business decision makers.”
In 2016, Bloomberg launched the Middle East version of its news website as well as set up its TV studio in the DIFC to provide live video content about the region.