The Arabic news TV market is a busy, overcrowded place. Gone are the days of tinny signature jingles and drab-looking studios. Uninspiring, wooden anchors have made way for slick, energetic stars talking intently to audiences from state-of-the-art newsrooms. Nowadays in the Middle East, news is glitzy. So with the re-appearance of the BBC - the grandfather of broadcasting - on the scene people are asking if it really can turn heads in the region.
Strictly speaking, it's not the first time the BBC has tried to launch an Arabic language television channel. Its first foray, in 1994, was widely seen as a dismal failure. It was heralded as a pioneering move, but in reality a lack of understanding of the cultural forces at play caused it to fall out of favour with its Saudi backers, and it was ungracefully canned.
Now, of course, the market has changed radically. The quality of journalism has risen dramatically - the best Arab journalists left the failed BBC channel to go on and launch Al Jazeera Arabic - and millions of dollars are being pumped into world-class production facilities.
In fact, it's an incredibly lucrative market, backed by rich businessmen, princes and governments. And the Arabs are by far the biggest spenders. Compare, for example, the massive budgets of some of the region's stylish news outfits with BBC Arabic's relatively paltry initial $50 million start-up costs.
BBC Arabic will step up to the plate with little money, being a state-run broadcaster funded by British taxpayers, but it will play its one strong card - its reputation. There is little doubt the BBC enjoys credibility and respect on a global level and BBC Arabic director Nigel Chapman will look to capitalise on this.
No fear
"The BBC reports without fear or favour even if that means upsetting governments," he has told the media prior to this weeks launch. And perhaps an area where BBC Arabic may shine is in-depth reporting; it will have huge resources on tap in a market where most investigative documentaries aired here are produced abroad.
But even if the BBC is known for fair journalism, it is still coming into the game very late on. What can a British broadcaster do for a region that looks less and less towards the West for quality news programming, and has already found it in its own backyard?
In reality - for the vast majority of Arabs sitting in coffee shops on the streets of Cairo or Beirut - probably not very much. BBC Arabic promises to take on the likes of Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, but it has already faced accusations of being a tool of British foreign policy; these may be unfounded, but the battle for news in the Arab world could prove too fierce, too saturated - and too polarised - to give BBC Arabic adequate breathing space.
Many Arab journalists in the region have talked about moving to BBC Arabic to build up experience and skills. They know the BBC doesn't have the deepest pockets; the expectation is once they have been trained up, moving onto to Al Jazeera, the most respected news channel in the Arab and Muslim world, would be a logical career step.
A fierce battle for viewing figures is already taking place between Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera, the region's highly polished heavyweights, and BBC Arabic will have to tune into the market quickly to stand a chance. Regional viewers are more accustomed to Al Jazeera's confrontational style, which expertly raises emotions - a safe, measured BBC approach is probably unlikely to move the masses. BBC Arabic, for all its good intentions, could even face a wider audience suspicious of a new British channel that will inevitably be seen by many to be linked to the occupation of Iraq, and the US propaganda machine.
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