ONE Championship‘s parent company, Group ONE Holdings (ONE), and Media City Qatar announced a long-term strategic partnership on Jul. 22 at the Qatar Economic Forum.
The two organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding (“MoU”) that will result in a collaboration “in the production and development of a wide range of global content in Qatar across multiple media sectors, including original programming, studio shows, and esports, that will strengthen Qatar’s growing media ecosystem,” per ONE’s press release.
“This partnership is extremely strategic as it marks our foray into the Middle East, a key market for ONE across all of our content offerings: general entertainment, martial arts, and esports. We are excited to bring ONE closer to all our fans in Qatar and across the Middle East,” said ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong.
“Media City has big ambitions of establishing Qatar as a global media hub and we are committed to enhancing this vision while building world-class content in Qatar to serve millions of fans around the world.”
The partnership will begin with the second season of The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition.
The second season of the award-winning show will feature Qatar as a filming location, but the long-term partnership will extend beyond the reality television series.
ONE and Media City Qatar are already discussing plans to develop live sports programming and create an esports hub for key stakeholders in the industry.
“We are very excited to announce a partnership with Group ONE Holdings which will bring a global content creator to Doha and strengthen Qatar’s media ecosystem. Media City is focusing on enabling innovative, creative media to flourish in Qatar and this partnership will be strategic in achieving this objective,” said Media City Qatar CEO Sheikh Ali bin Abdullah bin Khalifa Al-Thani.
“We expect that this partnership will also create a path for other global IP content creators to consider Qatar as a hub to build their presence.”
As ONE continues to expand and increase its global footprint, this partnership will help them break out into the Middle East market by utilizing martial arts, esports, and entertainment properties.