| Antoine Choueiri | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 3, 1939 Beirut, Lebanon |
| Died | March 9, 2010 (aged 70) Lebanon |
| Nationality | Lebanon |
| Occupation | Businessman, CEO, Mass Media owner |
| Religion | Maronite Catholic[1] |
| Spouse | Rose Salameh (1961-2010)[2] |
| Children | Lina and Pierre |
Antoine Choueiri (August 3, 1939 – March 9, 2010) was a Lebanese media executive. He was the founder of Choueiri Group, the Middle East’s largest media broker. He was born in Beirut in 1939 to a Maronite Christian family from Bcharre and married his wife Rose Salameh in 1961 which gave birth to two children.[3] He died on March 9th 2010 of health complications, he is buried in his ancestral home of Bcharre in his honor one of Bcharre's main streets will be named "Antoine Choueiri" in homage to him and his achievements.[4]
At the height of its powers, the company that he founded, the Choueiri Group, controlled the flow of advertising to most of the top free-to-air television stations in the region, including MBC, LBC, Al Jazeera and Dubai Media Incorporated. In recent years, after Rotana tied up with LBC and handed its ad sales over to its commercial arm, Rotana Media Services, its reach had shrunk somewhat, but it remained the dominant force in the media buying market.The Choueiri Group was able to rise to such a position of dominance in part because it was the first to the market. Mr Choueiri left the magazine "Arab Week" in Beirut to found his company in Paris after the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war in the 1970s. It gained its Middle East foothold in Saudi Arabia and then expanded to Lebanon and the Emirates. The group operates now in 11 markets across the MENA region as well as in Europe and Japan. During early decades, TV in the Arab world was largely a government-run affair, but by the 1990s, when the first truly commercial satellite-TV stations, such as MBC, were emerging, this proved to be an advantage for Choueiri.[5]