a princely prize — the duke of cambridge prepares to reveal the winners of a new environmental award. now on bbc news, it's time for the media show. hello. the back pages have been dominating the front pages this week with the sale of newcastle united football club. but the premier league and the only part of british public life that the saudis are buying into. the independent and the evening standard can both trace their ownership back to the gulf kingdom. while over in the us, media giants like netflix and disney have had big investment from the saudis. so, does this affect the journalism we read of the television we watch? joining me to discuss that is vivienne walt, a correspondent for time magazine and fortune. areeb ullah is a journalist

at middle east eye. also sanan vakil who is deputy director of the middle east and north africa programme at chatham house, and jim waterson, who is media editor at the guardian. also today, the classic american music magazine rolling stone has launched in the uk. that might come as a surprise, considering how many media publications are shrinking. darren styles is the magazine's managing director. he also publishes attitude magazine. you could probably call this more of a relaunch than a launch but it didn't go so well the first time rolling stone launched in the uk. yeah, i think it was 1968, mickjagger launched the magazine in partnership with jann wenner, the founder of rolling stone. and jann wenner said to me, everyone had a lovely time, burnt through quite a lot of money through a 12 month period, had a swanky office in chelsea but jann decided it was doing more harm than good when i think what turned out to be the last issue spelt bob dylan's name wrong on the front cover. so, at that point, jann decided

it was time to cut and run. so, 52 years later, here we are back again. but with spell—check, so... awesome. brilliant. i look forward to hearing much more about that and what you are doing with this iconic title later in the programme. but let's start with saudi arabia. because the spotlight has been on the football. but listeners may be surprised to realise how embedded that country is in the british media. jim waterson, media editor at the guardian, just give us a reminder which newspapers and tv channels are owned by or associated with saudi arabia? well, saudi arabia is a country with a lot of money and it wants to improve its image and it wants to start improving its image abroad. and there is no better place in the world, if you are a gulf state, to come to change your image than london. we have all sorts of institutions whether football, media, or educationalfor sale and willing to take some money. so, in the case of the

media, you've got two really prominent examples, the london evening standard and the independent which is now online only. they were both owned by lord lebedev who is a russian, originally from russia. he sold stakes and owns a third of stakes to mysterious saudi businessmen who through a slightly complicated series of offshore accounts that turned out to be, in the eyes of the british government, connected to the saudi state. it is worth noting that the independent made it very clear that they haven't had any editorial compromising positions as a result of this, that they feel they are able to do theirjob as well. but you've got to ask, what is it that the saudis are buying when they buy a third of these quite prominent british outlets? and before we answer that, can ijust interrupt and ask, my understanding is that we didn't actually know about this ownership, this part ownership, it wasn't in the public domain for quite some time.

it was kept very quiet through a series of cayman island accounts and it only really came out after some digging by the ft in particular who managed to expose who was the ultimate owner of these. and what british people might not know is you might read the independent and you might not notice anything different but across the middle east, the saudi owners have taken the independent brand and launched a series of websites which have, in the eyes of many, been seen to push a pro—saudi narrative in local languages. so, even if the brand in the uk isn't changing, the sort of power of the british brand can be used overseas. and this is a lot of it, it is soft power, whether it is used in advertising the ec promoting saudi arabia, whether it is pr agencies in london that are earning massive sums spinning on behalf of all the gulf kingdoms, or whether it is actual direct ownership of british media through partnerships with companies like the independent. and they say they are not promoting, that they are completely independent, that they are editorially independent, these outlets, but you are saying as well, are you, that this has real world implications for british readers, for british audiences, do you think?

if you want these things and you have cash, you can of make this happen and so when we think about what influences us, of owning an outlet, there is always an opportunity influences us, 5 an opportunity for gulf states, and it is not just saudi arabia, uae, qatar are also looking around the place and investing in outlets. they want to shape western opinion because they care about how it affects them and reflects on them back home. vivienne, let's bring you in from fortune. that is the british press we are talking about, but you have also be looking at some of the us media companies that saudi arabia has been investing in and these are companies that many

of us use every day. absolutely. the one that i delved into deepest was netflix. the saudis made a big deal with netflix. now, it should be said that unlike what jim was talking about, these are us companies going out and looking for growth markets, and a lot of them are kind of tapped out in the west. we think of netflix being a booming company but its growth is really, really slowing, and where are you going to get millions and millions of well—funded young people to sign on to your service? it's going to be in countries like saudi arabia where two thirds of the country is younger than 30, they have money to spend, they are looking for entertainment, they are hungry for it, and as many of the saudis that i spoke to said, we binge watch all the kind of same tv as you do. we just do it online. but why does that mean the saudis want to invest in netflix? i can see why netflix might want to reach saudi. that was actually the direction it went. what saudi is investing in are other kinds of media companies. they have invested hugely in disney, in amc movie theatres, there wasn't a movie theatre in saudi arabia until a few years ago. they hadn't been a movie theatre open in the kingdom

for something like 35 years. and now are there lots? there are, according to the head of amc, which runs, i think they have opened about a dozen multiplexes around saudi arabia, the one in riyadh, they estimate it does about 11 times the traffic as the one in london, for example. they are packed, they have been packed from day one when they opened in i think it was 2018. their first showing was black panther. it was the biggest event in riyadh memory. and that is interesting

because it is the same black panther you'd see around the world. i wonder if the investment in something like netflix, the same question i asked jim, is does it have real—world implications, in terms of what they are seeing? does it give the saudis any editorial sway in what netflix views are seeing? we see tiny bits of that and i would say, unlike whatjim was saying, i think one of the major effects is a kind of...the hesitation that western producers have now. can they...um... can they create something that is very critical of the saudis without risking losing their shirt in the process? there was one instance which, of the documentary called the dissident made by an oscar—winning film director, it came out injanuary last year, it could not get distribution because it was about the murder ofjamal khashoggi.

it took a very long time for that documentary to be picked up by anybody. and they were very clear reasons why. i mean, netflix screened it at, or came to the screening of it at the sundance film festival and took a pass on it, as did everybody else. i mean, i suppose netflix aren't here to put forward their side, there might be other reasons why they didn't want the documentary, it might not be any good, or whatever. you mention the deal between saudis and netflix, what was that deal? well, the saudis made two production deals... i beg your pardon, netflix made two production deals, five years each and five products each, tv series or movies with two production

companies in riyadh. and, actually, the interesting thing is that you and i can now click on netflix and see what they have produced. and they are very unusual and rather surprising. these are made by young cutting—edge film directors, of which there are many in riyadh, and they are creating tv series and movies that are very clearly critical of rich saudis, possibly the royals, although that is a little bit less obvious. they explore, you know, the repressed sexuality. they are using the medium to express themselves in a way that i think might be quite surprising to western audiences. interesting. you mentioned just then, the murder ofjamal khashoggi, that was only a few years ago and there was outcry across the media, across the world, many parts of the world about that. are western media companies not seeing any pushback

for their engagement with saudi arabia? very, very little. and in fact, khashoggi's murder which happened exactly three years ago came only six months after the crown prince and nbs did this major trip around new york and silicon valley and la and had dinner with all the major movie stars and directors and the major tech giants of silicon valley. they were in deals in the works. six month later, khashoggi was murdered. and there was a freeze for about a year or two. but i would say that that's pretty much behind the saudis, and you have what is now the kind of schizophrenic experience where, you know, six flags, the amusement park company, the biggest amusement park company in the world is building a huge amusement park outside riyadh. there is a film festival about to happen, i believe next month injeddah. there is a lot going on in saudi arabia which involves western media companies, entertainment companies, and they appear to have turned the page. sanam vakilfrom chatham house, a good point to bring you in.

are you surprised there is not more pushback, given what happened with khashoggi? i think there was this two—year lull where nbs and the kingdom receded, they tried to take a back—seat, not be so public, and work on domestic issues. so, that is what we have been sort of witnessing over this two—year period, and with the sale of newcastle, i think this is a sort

of signal that people are willing to turn the page, and as vivienne described, with so many companies still looking for markets, western companies have not been very successful or able to push back on human rights issues, which in the kingdom, go beyond the brutal murder ofjamal khashoggi and also, you know, worthwhile elevating and mentioning the activists and women and journalists are detained also in the kingdom. but the market is hugely appealing. there is a very young population that is looking to benefit from the social liberalisation that was granted by mohammed bin salman, so there is a domestic dynamic here to the sports—washing of the media—washing that is taking place, and the soft power projection is very much tied to domestic drivers of reform in the kingdom. and of course it has broader regional and international implications as well.

areeb, let me bring you in because the football was mentioned, that has been the big story this past week, the saudi led consortium buying into newcastle football club. areeb ullah, you're from the middle eastern eye. in all the excitable coverage about these new owners in football, there's actually been much less about something we have obviously noticed on the media show, because we're a media show, which is, in the end this is a media story in a sense. tell us what are bein and beoth and how that all plays into this. so bein sports is the qatari—backed sports broadcaster got the commercial rights to air premier league games and sporting events from around the world for the middle east and also a lot of the global south, for example, indonesia is a big market for bein sports.

and what happened was in 2017 when there was an air, sea and land blockade imposed on qatar, which owns bein sports, what also happened, and this was imposed by saudi arabia, i might add, what also happened was bein sports was also banned inside saudi arabia. but then a few weeks later what you saw was the emergance of a new website called beoth that was being promoted by senior royal advisers on twitter, like saud al-qahtani, who was accused of helping orchestrate the murder ofjournalist jamal khashoggi who you mentioned earlier. and this service is offering the sports offering that bein sports was offering. including the premier league? including the premier league. bein sports caught wind of this. they realised that... they did some digging themselves, as well as the premier league, and they discovered that the signal that was being used to air these games originated not from a colombian

and cuban consortium, which is what the saudis were claiming, but from saudi arabia, from a company called arabsat, whch is a company which is majority owned by who? the saudi government. and then what happened after that is the qataris, they took this case to the world trade organization to kind of get to the bottom of why this was happening, and they took saudi arabia to the wto arbitration process and the wto then ruled in favour of saudi arabia — sorry, not saudi arabia, qatar. and they accused saudi arabia of essentially not charging and prosecuting the people behind beoth. and this was a big deal for the premier league. this was why newcastle —

that stalled that takeover. it is a massive deal for the premier league because bein�*s contract, for example, is worth roughly £500 million, and that is a lot of money for the premier league. and when the newcastle deal became public, one of the first people to condemn it and also lobby the premier league and the uk government against this deal was bein sports. but then what also happened was in early 2021, we saw saudi arabia end its blockade on qatar. and as a result of that, what we also saw only last week was bein sports was allowed to air its games and its programming inside saudi arabia. right, so there we go. we should point out in this tit—for—tat in saudi arabia that saudi arabia has previously blocked the website of your title, the middle eastern eye, because of what they say are your paper's links to qatar. yeah. jim waterson, got any thoughts on this — bein, beout, newcastle?

i think with all of it, it is so hard to follow if you are not sort of entwined in the regional politics and it is very, very difficult. i spent so long on this and even i struggle with it. but basically you end up with a story where the thing blocking a takeover of a premier league club appears to be more about who is paying for the television rights than about the human rights in the country that is connected to the purchases. so, we have a fit and proper persons test, but i think with all of this it comes back to — there is no better place in the world to come to than the uk if you want to buy an institution to improve your reputation. whether it's a football club or a media outlet, that's what we come back to. and ultimately the saudis have money on a scale that very few british investors and backers could dream of having. sanan vakilfrom chatham house, how typical is all of this — everything we have talked today about the way the gulf states

use the media is an form of soft power, asjim was saying? well, as we were talking about the gulf, i think we should broaden the scope, this is not unique to saudi arabia. qatar, uae are equally involved in investing and using the media and trying to project soft power. they've got a lot of money to throw around. they do indeed, and part of the reason the multi—year rift between saudi arabia, the uae, qatarand bahrain was qatar's aljazeera media station, which was seen as an extension of the qatari government. it didn't provide accurate or honest reporting on regional issues, was not reflective of regional trends and realities. and one of the demands issued against qatar in the 2017 rift was that aljazeera be shut down. and so it's important to see how that sort of coverage of regional issues and of neighbouring gcc countries will change, if at all, once — now that the rift has been resolved as of january this year. and so this is very much tied to deeper dynamics of regional competition where you have these small countries, particularly the uae and qatar, trying to project power through sports, through investments in the media,

through their own stations and channels, through buying football teams. and it's directed to politics back home, regional tensions, and again of course to improve their image in western countries. sanam vakil, thank you so much. that is us talking about gulf state franchises of british brands but let's now turn to a massive us brand that has arrived on british shores, and if that is not a massive handbrake turn, i don't know what is. darren styles, you are the managing director and the publisher of rolling stone uk edition. what made you think that an all—american magazine would work over here right now? well, a number of factors, really. i think politically — rolling stone is fundamentally a music magazine.

it has music as its core, but it has also always been political, sometimes with a small p, sometimes with a big p, and also about film and tv. and in terms of — you were talking about netflix earlier. in terms of how people consume television and music now on a volume previously unseen, the range of choice that exists. i think as a commentary piece, rolling stone, then as now, does an amazing job. 550,000 subscribers across the us see rolling stone every month. and so i think with the way that the magazine market has changed in the uk, the music magazine market in particular — over the last year or 18 months there has been some attrition and so i think a space has opened up for a more generalist title. and so the numbers point that way and i hope i am wrong. i've got a lovely copy of it here. £6.95, comes out

every two months. looking from the adverts, it is sort of aimed at quite high—end, sort of moneyed readers. it is that who you are aiming at? who is going to buy it, do you think? the average age of rolling stone reader in the states is a1, and i think that people who buy ink—on—paper magazines tend to be older, because that was the habit at the time. i think younger people get their news and their entertainment information now entirely digitally. but do you think you can get young people off tiktok, off youtube, to buy this? potentially yes, but our aspiration is to serve the audience that is already there. so the older audience. yes, q magazine closed last year.

at the peak of its powers it was doing 200,000 copies a month. but even when it finished it was 35 to 40,000 copies a month, and for a boutique publisher of our size, that is a great proposition. if we can get anything close to that, then... it's premium price, it's on beautiful 100gsm silk matte stock. it's a coffee table proposition, and i think that suits people in that 35 to 45 age bracket particularly well. jim watterson, media editor of the guardian, i don't know if you have seen the magazine, but what are your on all this? i think anyone who is launching a new publication at the moment is a very brave person, especially a print one, so i have to wish you luck. he looks brave, he looks courageous. i think i would like to know how much is going to be distinctively british and how much is going to be content from the us version. because there's quite different styles between the types of publications. it is looking very british at the moment, this one. it's got paul mason, ash sarkar. well, 100% of the launch issue

has been generated in the uk. there are now 15 editions of rolling stone around the world, the original us one and 1a others — australia, south korea, china, japan, argentina, colombia, and so on. and all of that content goes into a big content pool, and any licensee can take whatever they want from that pool at any point. going forward, we have a licence that allows us to take 50% of any edition from the us and then beyond that from overseas. but we have such a strong music market here — well, and film industry — that we'll lead on british content. vivienne, does fortune still have a print version? i'm afraid i don't know. absolutely, it has several. it has a global edition. unlike what darren was saying, we pretty much print the same magazine throughout the world, i believe. and it still does get millions of readers,

as does time. so, it's not — i hear whatjim is saying. i think time used to get something like five million readers a week. it possibly gets half of that now, but it still does get, you know, in the seven figures at least. rolling stone — i guess that looking at it from an american kind of perspective, it has a huge name and it's known for being a kind of writers' magazine. so, very good luck, i think, is what we're all saying. i'm afraid that is all we have time for today but thank you very much to all my guests, to darren styles, to vivienne walt, areeb ullah, sanam vakil, andjim waterson. the media show will be back next week at the same time. for today, thanks for watching and goodbye.

well, for most of us today, cloudy and damp and the next few days will also be very, very mild for the time of the year. but with that, we will have spells of wind and rain too, so very autumnal, but the temperatures will be quite a story, i think, by the time we get to tuesday. could even be over 20 degrees in some spots in the south. but this is the picture today. an awful lot of cloud, but having said that, thinner cloud in the south and south—west, so i would not be surprised if we get some decent sunny spells there. cornwall, devon, along the southern counties — temperatures in the high teens. but despite the cloud across the north, still up to around 15, 16 degrees, but bits and pieces of rain, and they will continue to last through the evening and overnight, while the south clears up a little bit, so there could be some clear spells lasting all through the night across england, particularly

the east and south—east. so, maybe down to 8 or 9 degrees here. a little bit fresher, but for many of us, it is into double figures. and whichever way you look at it, it is a very mild night. so here is tomorrow's weather. it starts off quite bright if not sunny in east anglia and the south—east, but quickly the cloud spreads ahead of this weather front. and you can see in the middle of the day, it is raining pretty much north and south not all the time. the rain will come and go. for some of us, it will be a damp, mild, drizzly sort of day, with 16, 17 degrees. for others, it could be quite wet with that rain splashing its way through into monday evening as well. but it is going to remain cloudy. this is a mild south—westerly wind brought by this big area of low pressure across the atlantic. and i think particularly on tuesday, we could have some very heavy rain brought in by this tongue of very warm air all the way from the azores.

now this is really going to bump up the temperatures are some of us at least on tuesday. despite all the cloud and heavy rain, especially heavy here in wales and maybe the north west of england, it is going to be exceedingly mild right across the country. high teens even where it is raining, without any sunshine, possibly 21 degrees if the sun does come out for any length be of time there in the south—east. and then basically tuesday into wednesday, we have got more weather fronts crossing the country, big low pressure establishes itself across the uk, so spells of wind and rain. i think by the time we get to friday, things are expected to quieten down. it will turn a little bit cooler too, but then the weekend, next weekend is going to turn unsettled again.

this is bbc news the headlines at four the home secretary, priti patel, says she is looking at a "whole spectrum" of measures to better protect mps following the death of sir david amess. i think it's fair to say we all have to be incredibly self—aware, conscientious, as to how we conduct our business and put safety front and centre of this. issues on social media have been highlighted as part of the discussion around the safety of mps. we ta ke we take social media very, very seriously. it inflames, it inspires and it drives others to do things that we quite rightly do not fit in with our values.

that we quite rightly do not fit in with our values.