Lebanon's History Channel from Lebanon

While television in the Arab world was a government monopoly, Lebanon was an exception. In 1956, the Lebanese government granted broadcast licenses to two private companies. La Compagnie Libanaise de Télévision (CLT) and Compagnie de Télévision du Liban et du Proche-Orient (Télé-Orient. CLT began broadcasting on May 28, 1959, making it the first commercial television station in the Arabic-speaking world. Soon after Télé-Orient, with financing from the American Broadcasting Company, began broadcasting. CLT, which was licensed to Alex Aridi and Wissam Izzedine, operated two VHF channels, Canal 7 and Canal 9. Canal 9 was a French-language channel. After the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, media production migrated from Cairo to Beirut; that helped fuel television production in Lebanon.