Gabriel Murr Family

Gabriel Murr is a Lebanese businessman who launched MTV in 1991. He is the brother of late MP and former Deputy Prime Minister Michel Murr Sr. But in the early 2000s, Gabriel and Michel had a fallout, which culminated in 2002 when Gabriel ran for Parliament against his niece, Myrna, Michel’s daughter. He was initially declared as the winner until the Constitutional Council canceled his election months later, at a time when most institutions were under the influence of the Syrian regime. His son, Michel Gabriel Murr, runs today the TV station and his other children a number of other media outlets and real estate projects. Michel Gabriel Murr is the CEO of MTV. Shareholders include Gabriel Murr, four of his children (Michel, Jyad, Carl and Carole), Joseph Sarkis, and Michel Murr's children, Talal and Karim. In 1999, he started MTV’s satellite broadcast. In 1994, he founded Studiovision, a production house for MTV and other media outlets, including the Arabic-language American channel Al-Hurra. He was also involved with his brother in a number of radio stations: Radio Mont-Liban (RML) today named NRJ; Nostalgie; Jabal Lebnan Radio. In 2003, he also became the Manager of Rotana, a music and entertainment pan-Arab network of TV stations, owned by Saudi Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal. His involvement with Rotana ended in 2015. He was cleared of a court case in 2018 where he was accused of having been involved in an illegal internet scandal which occurred in 2016. Jyad Gabriel Murr started RML in 1979 at the age of 14. He is the founder and current CEO of Virgin Megastores Lebanon. He graduated from AUB with a degree in Business Administration and also holds a Master’s degree in Music Production and Technology and another in Music Business from Berklee College of Music. Carl Gabriel Murr, is the third son of Gabriel Murr. He is a founding member at Studiovision and a co-owner of Zaarour Club (a ski resort). Carol Murr-Farah is the daughter of Gabriel Murr and is also on the board of Studiovision, NRJ, Nostalgie and RML, and the CEO of Zaarour Club. In addition, companies affiliated with MTV seem to demonstrate a division of management. While One TV and One FM (a music channel and radio station), launched in the past year, are still connected to Michel Gabriel Murr, Jyad Gabriel Murr manages Aghani Aghani (a music station), Nostalgie (a French-English radio station), Jabal Lebnan (radio station), Info3 (a news platform), and Studiovision (a production house).