The Gulf Film Festival plays a major role in promoting the region’s film industry, the festival’s director has said. Speaking at the opening ceremony on Tuesday, Masoud Amralla Al Ali said that the six-day festival is helping form “an intimate bond with talents participating in it”. The fesitival, now in its fifth year, is screening a collection of films at the Grand Festival Cinemas in Dubai's Festival City. All screenings are free to the public.

Intel is developing an Internet-based TV service for consumers and has been promoting it with media companies. According to the Wall Street Journal,  the world's leading chipmaker plans to create a "virtual cable operator" that would offer TV channels in a bundle via the Internet and an Intel set-top box. The chipmaker reportedly told its potential partners it wants to start the service before the end of the year. 

According to Forbes magazine, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is the Arab world’s wealthiest man. Alwaleed’s fortune is estimated at US$21.3bn, making him the richest individual in the Middle East. Alwaleed, chairman of Riyadh-based Kingdom Holdings, is heavily invested in the media industry. He has large stakes in companies like Apple and Twitter, among others.

YouTube is set to live-stream the 2011 Dubai International Film Festival. The free live-stream will feature  the red carpet opening on December 7 and the closing award ceremonies a week later. The festival's opening ceremony will be the first entertainment event to be live-streamed on Youtube in the MENA region."We are thrilled to partner with Google to bring the Dubai International Film Festival to YouTube's  global audience thanks to the power of video and the internet" said Abdulhamid Juma, chairman of the Dubai International Film Festival. 

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services are threatening telecommunication services in the Emirates. Customers are making long distance phone calls at lower prices, which amount to a fraction of those charged by telecom operators like Etisalat and du. 

Al Jazeera has announced it will launch its content free of charge to social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter as part of The Al Jazeera Initiative for Internet Freedom, allowing more people across a range of digital platforms to access Al Jazeera content; according to a report by Arabian Business.

ArabianBusiness.com reports that according to a statement by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), Al Jazeera has been granted permission to broadcast in Canada, but only under strict criteria.

ArabianBusiness.com reports that Computer News Middle East will now be owned and run by IDG.

International Data Group (IDG), a $1.5 billion US media company, has bought its UAE franchise partner CPI IT for $5.5 million.