MBC Group said on Monday it has appointed Marc Antoine d’Halluin as chief executive, replacing Sam Barnett who left in October after 17 years with the Middle East’s biggest broadcaster. D’Halluin, who began his career at Sony Pictures, is expected to join Dubai-based MBC on Jan. 5, it said. MBC Group chairman and founder, Waleed al-Ibrahim said in the statement on Monday he hoped the new chief executive would succeed in moving the group forward with its five-year growth plan announced last year. MBC owns several satellite TV channels, including the 24-hour Arabic language news channel Al Arabiya. D’Halluin previously worked as chairman of the Luxembourg-based M7 Group, which operates satellite Pay TV packages in Holland, Belgium, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.