Mohammad Bazaid: From Vlogger to TV host

Saudi youth are infiltrating social media sites in a desire to express their opinions and share social issues that concern them. Some have chosen Twitter as their outlet, while others have opted for YouTube as an outlet to broadcast their creative videos.
Mohammad Bazaid was one of the first Saudis to start a YouTube channel deriding and mocking local advertisements poorly written, ineffective or deceitful. The program is called “Tasea’a Ela Roboa”, which translates to “Fifteen Minutes to Nine” and the YouTube channel that broadcasts the program is called “Sah” Arabic for “True”.
Bazaid previously worked as a reporter in one of the prominent TV channels in the Middle East, and his YouTube show is designed to resemble a newsroom, except the presenter is ridiculing the news instead of broadcasting it. “The idea of the show came from two of my close friends, Tariq Al-Hussaini and Hazem Al-Jurayan, in March 2010. I believe it is the first show of its kind in the Kingdom,” he said. “We faced problems with advertisers, as they didn’t believe YouTube was a good medium to advertise in,” he added.
Bazaid and his team wanted to prove everyone wrong and proceeded with the show even though they did not have any sponsors or advertisers on board. “We had low expectations in terms of viewership. However, we were pleasantly surprised to find that in the first few days we had reached a large number of subscribers and viewers,” he said. “From then on, our show started appearing every Saturday, with a new collection of funny and amusing news. The first season entailed a total of 12 episodes. The inspiration for the name of my show came from the fact that local TV channels broadcast the news daily at nine o’clock, and we were looking to relate to that in a comical way, so we called the show fifteen minutes to nine,” he said.
Little after the first season of Tasea’a Ela Roboa, the YouTube market started flourishing with new local shows that also captured the attention of viewers and subscribers. “Each show had a different approach and a different level of production, but what mattered mostly, is that people started to believe in the power of YouTube,” said Bazaid.
The aim of the show was to spread laughter and lighten the mood, according to Bazaid. “If you pick up any Saudi newspaper publication you will see the exact same news published in three other competing Saudi newspapers. We wanted to shed light on this fact in a comical manner,” he said. “The other goal of our show was to use the open medium of YouTube to allow people to express themselves and voice their opinions,” he added.
“When you look at the number of viewers on any of the famous Saudi YouTube videos, you will find that it might be more than the viewership for a certain TV show,” said Bazaid.
Many TV stations have offered Bazaid and his team the opportunity to broadcast their show on the big screen, but Bazaid was against leaving YouTube. He instead agreed to start a new show with Rotana TV channel, while simultaneously working on his YouTube show.
The new TV show is called “Al Nashra Al” which is Arabic for newsletter and airs everyday on Rotana TV. “On this show I have a co-host, Hussam Al-Harthy, who was also a YouTube channel host. His program was about Saudi sports,” he said. “The TV show is similar to our YouTube shows, with small differences in terms of production, cast members and the script.”
According to Bazaid, TV offers the production team flexibility in terms of the ease and speed of changing the script, location and look of the show, that YouTube shows don’t offer.
Regarding freedom of expression, Bazaid said both YouTube and TV broadcasting offer the same limitations. “Since I personally appear in my YouTube show and on Rotana TV, I need to respect my country’s boundaries. I have been working in this field for a while, so I have a firm awareness of the dos and don’ts,” he said.
Bazaid further elaborated that he doesn’t stress on the social message in his shows, but rather on ensuring the viewers get access to quality content.
“I believe that the content is what makes a show good or bad and it is the reason why people favor one show over the other, and recommend it to their friends,” he said. “We always make sure our content is smart, funny and attractive. I believe this is the reason behind the popularity of our show,” he said.

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