Sydney Suissa is a busy man. But then, as executive vice-president of content for National Geographic Channels International, you’d expect him to be.
The iconic organization is 122 years old this year, and has grown from an academic club for the elite to a scientific and media powerhouse that encompasses six television channels, numerous magazines, book publishing, map production, film production, and countless other spin-off products. It’s a huge success story, a globally renowned brand that has achieved major commercial success (though it is non-profit; all its revenues are used to further the National Geographic Society’s aims), all the while maintaining its credibility as a beacon of scientific advancement, exploration and knowledge.
Suissa, a veteran of documentary and journalistic production, oversees the content for the Society’s channels, which reach a global audience of 315 million homes in 166 countries and 34 languages. He was recently in the UAE for a few days only, on a dual mission, Communicate suggests – to scout for content and to schmooze with big advertisers.
“I’m here for three reasons, actually,” says Suissa. “One is to spend time with Rohit [D’Silva, general manager of Fox International Channels ME, National Geographic’s partner] and the team and find out how I can help – how I can help them source programming that is relevant here, and how we can actually produce programs here that will be relevant to the rest of the world. I’m also here to meet specific clients that Rohit feels that it’s important to meet so that we can further some business interests. But primarily I’m here as a programmer. I’m here to look for stories that we can do and to identify projects that we should be doing either based here or based elsewhere that would resonate here.”
Suissa’s presence here and the time and effort being devoted to the region are an implicit recognition of the importance of the Middle East to global media brands. Recently, National Geographic embarked on a groundbreaking new project when it launched its first free to air television channel, National Geographic Abu Dhabi. Fully dubbed in Arabic, it reaches some 50 million homes – that’s a total of around 200 million viewers. And it’s not the only Arabic innovation in the pipeline; Suissa confirms that there are “discussions – pretty advanced discussions – about launching an Arabic version of the magazine.”

SHARED VALUES. According to Suissa, the driving force for these Arabic products is more than just the commercial appeal of a potential audience of 325 million Arabs. Rather, it is about the shared values of National Geographic and the Arab world. He says thanks to these, the response to the new channel has been excellent, even if the people meters aren’t in place to confirm it.
“Anecdotally the channel has been immensely well received,” he says. “We offer something that is not offered [elsewhere], which is essentially high quality information programs that are suitable for families, that offer views about the world, that offer information and insights into other cultures, and other places. I think that’s been immensely well received.”
The channel is one of a range in the region. Alongside the free National Geographic Abu Dhabi sit the subscription channels National Geographic Wild, National Geographic Adventure, and the core channel (available in high definition). Demand in the Middle East is clearly not lacking.

THE STORY SO FAR. Suissa is here exploring possible content for National Geographic’s channels. Though he’s unwilling to go into detail on the organization’s upcoming projects in the area, he is prepared to give a hint.
“The kind of stories we have not done and I have not seen are but would like to do would be about some of the wildlife, some of the natural history of the Gulf, of the Gulf states and of this region,” he says. “There are some incredible stories. This part of the world, for instance, was not always desert, it was something else thousands and thousands of years ago. So to look at the ancient geology and the formations, I think that would be of great interest, not just to people who live here but to the rest of the world.”
Suissa says he has identified two particular stories that he definitely wants to pursue, and while he won’t elaborate on the nature of those stories, he is enthusiastic about the projects that National Geographic has already undertaken in the region, particularly in the UAE.
“It’s interesting,” he says. “The stories we’ve done here have to do with a country emerging. We’ve done a lot of stories about some of the grand architectural projects that have been produced here. And they rate incredibly well, there’s great interest throughout the world. The scale of the engineering that goes on here is really unlike most other countries. So there’s real appeal there – it’s a way for viewers to see how a modern world is being built.”
This kind of engineering focus is one of the key National Geographic subject areas into which all its programming must fit. Alongside engineering – or technology – are the fields of national history, wildlife, environment, science, and culture.
“What’s really important to understand is that worldwide we don’t program for specific markets,” explains Suissa. “We don’t program specifically for the UK, or for India, or for France, or for China. We program for the world. We’ve done a number of stories already out of Dubai, out of Abu Dhabi and other parts of the Middle East that actually worked really well elsewhere. The key is to find more.”

GOOD CENSOR. It goes without saying that in a country like the UAE, engineering projects provide some of the really juicy content. But most development is led by government-owned or controlled entities; what happens if the stories Suissa and National Geographic are pursuing stray into territory that may be sensitive to senior figures in the region? Does National Geographic have to cope with the same censorship issues as other media?
“By nature we’re not a political organization and we don’t approach our stories from that perspective,” says Suissa. “We approach our stories [by asking], is this good engineering or is this bad engineering? Is this environmental story a good environmental story or is it a bad environmental story? Will it harm the planet or help it? Those are the questions – the filters – that we use. We are more than 120 years old as an organization, and the reason we’ve lasted this long is because we have taken that neutral position on politics. Our view has been much bigger, has been about exploring this world.”
But exploring this world means living in it as well, and while National Geographic may be able to inhabit neutral political ground, it has to survive in the same economy as every other media company. Suissa acknowledges that in a tougher economy – such as the one we’ve seen over the past year – the organization has to tighten its belt, just like everybody else. The key to its ongoing success, he says, is in the way it handles these economic cycles.
“You’ll have good years and bad years,” he says. “When times are tougher I have to cut back on how much I spend on programming. [When you have a tough year] it changes the number of projects you can produce, but I don’t think it changes the approach. We’re known for doing projects of certain budgets and certain quality and I think if the approach is that because you reduced your budget you’re going to do things cheaper, you’re going to do cheaper programming I think that would hurt the brand.”