Rapid TV News reports that Beirut-based Future TV is back on the air, as of May 13th, following its closure last week when equipment was destroyed in a raid that also set fire to the station. At the time, according to station boss Nadim al-Munla, it was expected that the station could be off air for “weeks” .

Future TV, a popular pan-Arab regional entertainment channel that’s been on air since 1993.  The station is owned by the Hariri family. Mr al-Munla told journalists on the LBC Satellite TV station that a group of gunmen belonging to Hezbollah besieged the building and threatened that if the transmission did not stop, the entire facility would be destroyed.

According to BBC Monitoring, Mr al-Munla said “We received [this information] through an officer belonging to a Lebanese Army. The management of Future TV decided to stop transmission in order to protect the employees inside, as well as the facility itself. We were forced to stop transmission and placed the facility in the hands of the Lebanese Army.”

Future TV was then handed over to the Lebanese Army, but moments later, said al-Munla, “armed elements and television experts entered the building and tore off all the wiring in the building in order to prevent transmission, which would not resume today or tomorrow and probably for weeks. It seems that their intelligence was very efficient. One gunman inside the Future Television building contacted the technical manager, who was taking shelter in a west Beirut building, and asked him to tell the gunmen where the cameras where placed and where the computers that save all the video of what goes on inside the centre were to be found in order to confiscate all the videotapes and prevent us from transmitting to the Lebanese and Arab people what exactly these gangs did and what happened inside the building.”

In any case, on Tuesday May 13, Future TV and its sister News channel, were unexpectedly back up and running from studios in West Beirut in the Sin el-Fil district.

AMEInfo reports that a Arab Advisors Group conducted a survey showing that 37.6% and 37.1% of respondents named LBC and Future TV, respectively, as one of five stations Lebanese watched most. As you would expect, news was found to be the most popular program type among all age groups.

The survey also revealed terrestrial TV remains top in Lebanon while satellite TV gains some following.