Saudi Arabia will launch a new channel titled ‘Saudia Alaan’ (Saudia Now) in conjunction with the celebration of the 93rd National Day that falls on Sept. 23. Minister of Media and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Broadcasting Authority (SBA) Salman Al-Dosari announced on Wednesday the launch of the new channel. He said that the channel will serve as the official Saudi platform for broadcasting all official events and entertainment activities and programs. ‘Saudia Alaan’ aims to highlight the robust growth and the rapid development that the Kingdom is witnessing and the huge scale of events that it is organizing in its race towards achieving the goals of its ambitious Vision 2030 in the future. These represent hosting diverse local, regional and international events and conferences, in all political, economic, educational and entertainment domains. Al-Dosari emphasized the importance of the media keeping pace with the development march and tangible development at various levels, saying that this is one of the indicators that reflects the size of this movement in terms of the momentum of events, activities, occasions and conferences that the Kingdom is witnessing. “This is also complemented by the media roles that are a reflective mirror of national events, and within the framework of the soft powers that Saudi Arabia follows in reflecting the Kingdom’s image to the entire world. This step is only a small part of the great efforts made by SBA as part of its strategy to enhance local content and achieve the transformation program,” he added. On his part, Mohammed Al-Harthi, CEO of SBA, said that the authority has completed all preparations to launch the new channel. “The new channel will be dedicated to covering events, occasions, and activities that take place in the Kingdom, based on SBA’s roles in contributing to the development of all sectors and integration with the partner entities. The new channel will allocate time slot to cover events directly and will be integrated with social networking platforms to reach the largest segment of viewers as well as to create interaction with the public,” he pointed out. Al-Harthi said the authority has also worked to create partnerships with various entities to enhance the channel’s content and provide high-quality services. “The launch of the channel comes as a result of a surge in demand for coverage of events, activities, exhibitions and conferences in all regions of the Kingdom, especially in light of the increasing number of events, exhibitions and conferences hosted by the Kingdom. A total of 5,650 event licenses have been issued during the year 2022, and this is an increase of 367 percent compared to the year 2021,” in addition to the role of the channel in achieving the strategy of companies and institutions that seek to gain access to a large and diverse segment of the public in the Kingdom,” he added.