Background Information:
MTV (short for Music Television), which pioneered the concept of a cable music channel, was launched on August 1 1981. At the time of its launch, the MTV channel primarily catered to those in the 12 to 24 age group, airing heavy metal and rap music, although it expanded into several different niche markets through the establishment of alternative channels, such as VH1 and Nickelodeon, in conjunction with airing reality TV shows. In 1986, MTV was acquired by Viacom inc. and started to expand its operations through the global marketplace through a “Think Globally, Act Locally” strategy. The channel MTV Arabia was formed as a result of a licensing arrangement between MTV and AMG. MTVN (MTV Networks) launched MTV Arabia on November 17, 2007, in partnership with Arabian Television Network (ATN), which is part of the Arab Media Group’s (AMG) Arabian Broadcasting Network (ABN). According to analysts, MTV’s success in the Middle East was contingent upon a tactical balancing between delivery of international quality music and the culturally sensitive environment prevalent in the region.
The Fundamental Management Issue:
The key fundamental issue within the MTV case study is to determine whether localisation is needed to be successful in the market in conjunction with maintaining the MTV global brand and product. This is an issue since the market that MTV was entering, the Arabian market, presented a different cultural and socio-ethical construction from which MTV was used to and MTV was forced to adapt to the market to be successful.
Analysis of the Fundamental Management Issue:
There are many idiosyncrasies within the Middle Eastern culture that MTV would not have been familiar with, although MTV has a high degree of cultural competence with its extensive forays into regions such as Europe, Asia and Latin America. One of the major attributes to note is the pervasiveness of Islam within the Middle Eastern culture. Among certain obligations for Muslims are to pray five times a day - at dawn, noon, afternoon, sunset, and evening. During the holy month of Ramadan all Muslims must fast from dawn to dusk and are only permitted to work six hours per day. There is also more emotional resistance to change in the Arab type of culture.

There were also many opportunities for MTV’s expansion, such as favourable demographics, that MTV had global recognition, which allowed opportunity for artists to gain global prominence, and growth opportunity through technologies such as mobile phones and broadband. There were also some key challenges that MTV had to overcome to succeed in the Middle Eastern market, including the explicit Western culture portrayed by MTV, that there were several regions comprising the Middle East and a universal standard may not address these local differences and the established competitors such as Rotana and Melody Hits in Arabia.

Due to the opportunities and threats in conjunction with the cultural differences and other components of MTV’s strategic formulation process-such as MTV’s mission and objective in the Middle East and the internal analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of MTV-MTV chose to approach the Middle East market with a regionalisation/localisation strategy. By “acting local”, firms can focus individually in each country or region on the local market needs. MTV Arabia was to showcase 60 percent international music and 20 percent Arab music, along with local versions of the channel’s popular international non-music shows. About 45 percent of MTV Arabia’s content was to be produced locally, with the rest translated. This seems to be the most prudent policy that MTV could have adopted considering the music shows that MTV programme, rather than using the standardisation approach. There is such a diversity of music and non-music show preferences even within cultures, so that to attribute that everyone has the same preferences would be a fallacy because music is something completely dependent on the individual. Prahalad further argues “Armed with their powerful, established brands, multinationals are likely to overestimate the extent of westernisation in the emerging markets and the value of using a consistent approach to brand management around the world”. Sayegh succinctly expresses MTV’s cultural sensitivity when he states, “when we come to people’s houses, we want to earn their respect”. This respect is essential when wanting to conduct business in Arabia.

Whilst 45 per cent of the shows are locally produced, the form of the shows, especially the reality TV shows, still follow the guidelines set out by similar MTV shows in western countries. The show Hip Hop Na is something reminiscent to American Idol, whilst Al Helm and Akher Takka are based on already established MTV shows. Further, “while plenty of U.S. and European videos will never make it into the line-up, others will be sanitized for the Arab audience. At MTV Arabia's offices, a vast warehouse in Dubai, editors from across the region pore over clips frame by frame to remove offensive content. Bad language? Bleep it out. Shots of kissing, revealing outfits à la Britney Spears, or people on a bed? Blur them, or insert some less racy bit of the video.” Although this extent of regionalization might seem too extensive to many accustomed to what MTV normally portrays, this would be judging something by your own cultural standards and not fully understanding the Middle Eastern culture, and this small amount of editing does not dilute the MTV brand to a great extent.
Recommended solution/insight from the case:
As with any management function, the strategic choice as to where a company should position itself along the globalization-regionalization continuum is contingent on the nature of the industry, the type of company, the company’s goals and strengths (or weaknesses), and the nature of its subsidiaries, among many other factors. In addition, each company’s strategic approach should be unique in adapting to its own environment. This unique environment has already been portrayed within the paradigm of the Arabian culture, and the argument pertaining to the industry has also been described, with the diversity in music tastes, which preclude a one-size-fits-all stratagem. By surveying what the company wanted to achieve in the market and the strengths of the company, as well as the strength of their competitors, the only alternative was for a localization approach for MTV. The degree of this regionalization is completely contingent on the market that is being entered, since even when entering other markets MTV chose a regionalization strategy. Therefore, the insight that can be gained from this case is that there is no predetermined “best” strategy regarding globalization-regionalization, that there are many factors that must be considered and the case for a regionalization strategy for MTV has been put forward.

This method of regionalisation is a modus operandi that MTV has used in ventures overseas, with a decentralised structure and a large degree of autonomy to the local staff. It is clear that the benefits of regionalisation outweigh the costs of possible dilution of the MTV brand, since there is no point in a prominent brand name if it cannot be utilised.
REFERENCE LIST:

Bjerke, B, 1999, ‘Business Leadership and culture: national management styles in the global economy’, Cheltenham, UK

Capell, K, 2007, ‘The Arab world wants its MTV’, in Bloomberg Business Week, October 22, 2007, viewed 7/10/2010, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_43/b4055067.htm

Derensky, H, 2010, International Management managing across borders and cultures, 7th edn, Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey

Prahalad, C. K., & Lieberthal, K. (2003). ‘The end of corporate imperialism’, Harvard Business Review, vol.81 iss.8, pp. 109-117.

Saudi Arabia-Language, culture, customs and etiquette, 2010, viewed 5/10/2010, http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/saudi-arabia-country-profile.html