HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, Chairman of Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) attended the inauguration of the 3rd Abu Dhabi Media Summit on Tuesday October 9th 2012. The 3-day Summit was held at the Yas Hotel under the patronage of the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, attended and represented by HH Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs.

HH Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, welcomed Prince Alwaleed and Mr. Bill Gates. An opening speech was also presented by H.E. Mr.  Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Member of the Executive Council for the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of Executive Affairs Authority, CEO of the Mubadala Development Company. During the event, a keynote speech was given by Mr. Bill Gates, Co-Founder and Chairman of Microsoft and CEO, Cascade Investment, L.L.C and Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Prince Alwaleed was accompanied by a delegation that included Mr.  Jamal Khashoggi, General Manager of Alarab news channel that is personally owned by HRH, Ms. Heba Fatani, Senior Executive Manager, Corporate Communications Department (KHC), Dr. Nahla Nasser Alanbar, Private Executive Assistant to HRH the Chairman, Ms. Hassna F. Alturki, Department Head, Travel & External Affairs and Mr. Husam A. AlSuliman, Executive Assistant to HRH the Chairman.

The Abu Dhabi Summit is a unique gathering of global and emerging–market media leaders, aimed at establishing a dialogue at the highest level about the future of television, mobile, online and print media, and digital communications. The aim of the summit is also to define the opportunities and challenges for those various media, in addition to exploring investment and marketing sectors in South Asia, Middle East, China and other global media areas.

In March 2010 and 2011, Prince Alwaleed attended the inauguration of the Abu Dhabi Media Summit under the patronage of HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The event was attended by HH Sheikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Interior on behalf of the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, HE Muhamed Khalaf al Mazrouei, Chairman, The Abu Dhabi Media Company, Mr. Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO of News Corporation (News Corp.). It is to be noted that Newscorp is an investor in Rotana Group that is chaired by Prince Alwaleed.

Prince Alwaleed has a strong presence and influence in media through his investments in media and entertainment in the Arab world, and beyond like the Saudi Research and Marketing Group (SRMG), in which Kingdom Holding holds a 29.9% stake. The publications that fall under SRMG include Asharq Al Awsat, Al Eqtisadiah, Arab News, Hia magazine, Al Majalla magazine, Arrajol magazine and Sayidati magazine. Furthermore, other entities that fall under SRMG are Al Khaleejiya for Publicity Advertising and Public Relations and Al Madina Printing and Publishing Company.

Rotana Group is a diversified media company in the Middle East. It is the world's largest producer of Arabic music and a key distributor and producer of Arabic movies with a library comprising more than 1,600 movies. Rotana also owns a bouquet of leading free-to-air TV channels including LBC, Cinema, Khalijiyah, Masryiah , Clip and Musica broadcasting the latest Arabic movies, programs, series and music videos globally. Furthermore, Rotana has radio stations, a chain of cafes and its own magazine. It also operates a leading regional advertising sales arm (Rotana Media Services), responsible for advertising sales on its TV channels as well other media businesses in the region. Rotana's content is also digitally distributed globally. The Rotana Group employs over 500 employees located across the Middle East. HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, the principal shareholder of the Rotana Group, is also the beneficial owner of approximately 7 percent of News Corporation’s Class B Common Stock as reported on a Schedule 13G, as amended, filed on February 4, 2010.

Rotana Group recently announced that Newscorp has reached an agreement to exercise 50% of its previously announced option in Rotana Group, the Middle East media group. Under the terms of the agreement, News Corporation will acquire newly-issued shares in Rotana for $35 million. The investment will take News Corporation’s total stake in Rotana to %18.97.

Prince Alwaleed privately owns the new international news channel “Alarab”. The news channel will cover the latest developments around the world and will also highlight political, social and economic issues in Saudi Arabia and the Arab world Alarab’s also has a an agreement with Bloomberg LP in which Bloomberg will support the creation of five-hours of financial and economic news programing throughout the day on the channel. Bloomberg-branded business reports will air within Alarab’s daily coverage with reports from the MENA markets as well as a weekly roundup of global financial news.  A team of Bloomberg media specialists and producers will be provided to the Alarab channel and will assist in the production of the channel’seconomic and business coverage. The Alarab news channel is an independent venture from Kingdom Holding Company and the Rotana group (that is an independent entity from KHC).