LBCI

The Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) is a media institution founded by the Lebanese Forces on August 23, 1985. It was the political party’s main channel during the civil war and the first to break the monopoly of Télé Liban over television broadcasting. It used to own the French-language TV channel C33, which was founded on September 12, 1988, and shut down on October 7, 1996 due to financial constraints. Lebanese businessman Pierre Daher has been chairman of LBC since its creation and in 1991 established LBCI, which bought LBC from the Lebanese Forces. In 1996, a company was created outside of Lebanon as a joint venture between LBCI and AMC (Arab Media Co), headed by Saleh Abdullah Kamel, a prominent Arabic businessman, who owned 49%, while LBCI had 51% of the shares. In 1997, the Lebanese State granted LBCI an official license for terrestrial broadcasting only a year after the Audiovisual Media Law was implemented. In 1998, LBCI began broadcasting via satellite to Europe, America and Australia (under the LBC Sat brand). On December 14, 2004, LBCI and the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper created a joint newsroom first headed by Jihad Khazen and then by Georges Semaan.

Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal is a Saudi businessman, investor, member of the Saudi royal family and grandson of Riad Al Solh, Lebanon’s first post-Independence Prime Minister. In 2007 he acquired more than 85% of both LBC SAT’s and PAC’s (the content provider for LBCI) shares. Consequently, the capital of PAC and LBC SAT was increased by 78 million dollars, reaching 123 million dollars in total. Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal was the only one to subscribe. Thus, the shares of Lebanese shareholders declined considerably. Some of them sold their shares, while others kept them, such as Pierre Daher who remained at the head of the group. This is how Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal became the largest shareholder after he had bought Saleh Kamel’s shares in 2003.

A legal conflict then started between Daher and Bin Talal in 2011. On March 14, 2012, LBC SAT started broadcasting from Egypt after 15 years in Lebanon. LBCI and LBC SAT split and PAC Company was liquidated.

While the LBC Sat channels continued to broadcast LBCI’s programs, Bin Talal filed a lawsuit in the UK to acquire ownership. However, the LBCI’s attorney transferred the case before the French arbitration court in 2013, in the complaint filed against Bin Talal to stop controlling LBC Europe, LBC America, LBC Africa, LBC Australia and LBC Maghreb, to waive his alleged right to said channels and give them back to LBCI for one dollar only. In July 2018, the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris “ICC” ruled in favor of LBCI against Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal’s companies.

Lebanese Diaspora Corportation (LDC) is a Lebanese channel created by Pierre Daher on November 25, 2012 following the split between LBCI and LBC Sat. LDC serves as the new satellite broadcasting channel for LBCI programs.

In the beginning of 2013, Daher launched LBCI Drama, a high-definition channel for Lebanese viewers only.

On September 17, 2016, Pierre Daher launched LB2, a terrestrial TV targeting youth to replace the LBCI Drama. It offers a variety of local and Arabic series as well as Turkish drama series. It does not broadcast any political programs or news bulletins.

The conflict opposing LBCI to Samir Geagea, the leader of the Lebanese Forces party, started when Geagea was released after years in prison in 2005. Geagea asked Daher to return LBCI to the party, guaranteeing the supervision of all media outlets affiliated with the Lebanese Forces. Daher rejected the offer and Geagea filed a complaint against Daher in 2007 for “misuse of trust, fraud, and embezzlement.” On February 28, 2019, Judge Fatima Jouni, the single criminal court judge in Beirut, issued a decision to rebut the LF's claims against LBCI and the chairman of its Board of Directors, Pierre Daher.