Competition is brewing among the biggest daily-deals websites in the region, as both Cobone and Groupon Middle East compete for discount-savvy customers. Both websites profess to being the most popular daily-deals discount site in the UAE, claiming millions of email subscribers and thousands of customers log in each day to buy discounted vouchers for restaurants, fashion, electronics and travel. "I'm still very bullish about the business model," said Paul Kenny, the chief executive and founder of Cobone. "I think people trust us more than other sites. We are the only big local brand left."

Two global broadcasters are in talks with Middle Eastern media companies about launching channels in the region. The Indian company Viacom18 has opened an office in Dubai, and is pursuing agreements in several Middle Eastern countries, while the BBC says it is in discussions to launch more of its English-language stations in the region.

7DAYS, a Dubai-based free newspaper, has announced plans to launch websites catering to other Middle East markets. "We're going to launch a separate website for Abu Dhabi, called 7DAYS in Abu Dhabi. That will be at the end of February, beginning of March," said Mark Rix, the chief executive of 7DAYS. "Three to four months after that, we will then launch a site in Riyadh and in Cairo, and by then we'll have a site in Qatar.

According to Elie Khouri, the chief executive of Omnicom Media Group in the Middle East and North Africa, television ad spend will decline by 5% in 2012. Khouri said that multinational advertisers are becoming increasingly cautious when it comes to regional TV advertising, and this would suppress TV revenues. "I estimate it's going to be down by 5% this year. Multinational clients are holding back."

Experts and industry insiders are predicting that the e-commerce sector will expand dramatically throughout the Middle East in 2012. "In the overall e-commerce space, this year is going to big," said Paul Kenny, the founder and chief executive of Cobone.com . "Daily-deals websites have almost forced people to go online and buy. We are converting people online almost every day."

According to industry executives, the regional PR and digital media sectors are expected to grow this year. Guy Taylor, the chief executive of Grayling Middle East said, "In Qatar, our business this year will double in size. Qatar has a huge commitment to developing not just infrastructure-related projects, but also entities and organisations".

According to Samer Abdin, a co-founder of Istikana, the advertising-driven service is lining up content deals to increase the number of hours of programming Istikana has to offer. "In the bank, we have 4,000 [hours], and we aim to get that at least again this year," Abdin said. Istikana currently has deals in place with about 25 content suppliers, including Jordan's Arab Telemedia Group.

Alarab, a television news station being launched by Saudi Arabian prince Alwaleed bin Talal, will be based in Bahrain. It was previously announced that the station would be based in either Bahrain or Dubai. Sheikh Fawaz bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, president of Bahrain's Information Affairs Authority confirmed that "the IAA reached an agreement on December 12 to launch Alarab news channel from Manama".

Following a study by the Abu Dhabi Technology Development Committee, the Ministry of Economy in the UAE plans to create new copyright laws in an effort to combat piracy. The ministry's plans include increased piracy policing and the establishment of intellectual piracy courts.