Al Manar Prime Time

byHabib Battah
May 11, 2012

Weight-loss drinks and diet pill commercials are the rage on Lebanese TV, particularly on Hezbollah-backed Al Manar.

Following Sec. General Sayed Hassan Nasrallah’s speech tonight, back-to-back ads from “Life Care” filled what must be the most coveted 2 minute spot between the speech and the beginning of Al Manar evening news.

I wonder how much these prime time Nasrallah slots go for, either during such regular speeches or his more infrequent hours-long interviews. The audience size is definitely marketable.

Habib Battah

Habib Battah is an investigative journalist and founder of the news site beirutreport.com. Battah has covered Lebanon and the Middle East for over 15 years and teaches journalism and media studies at the American University of Beirut. He is a contributor to Monocle, The Guardian, BBC World, Al Jazeera and others, a former fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University and two-time recipient of the Samir Kassir Press Freedom Award. Battah's investigative work was recently recognized for outstanding local reporting by the Columbia University Oakes Award for Environmental Reporting. Battah earned a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.A. in Near East Studies and Journalism from New York University.