CONCLUSIONES

As mentioned previously in Chapter Two, to determine the current life cycle stage, this study employed a modified version of Porter (1980) utilising the most common predictions for industry life cycle stages as a guide, which illustrated in Table 1 in section 2.1.2.1. Analysing the Egyptian animation industry presents a number of indicators that suggest that the animation industry in Egypt is in an Established Growth stage. One indicator that can be noted on analysing the Egyptian animation industry is that demand increased in the 1990s and 2000s (Bendazzi, 2016). In Egypt, in the 1930s, the animation industry started in its Introduction stage and demand was low, as it was only from local television, which had only two channels: only a few animation studios existed at that time. However, the demand for animation underwent

a rapid increase from domestic sources and other Arabic countries in the 1990s and 2000s (Bendazzi, 2016). In particular, the demand increased as a result of Arab media evolution as a number of satellite channels were established in Egypt and other Arab countries. According to interviews with a number of studio founders, this increase caused Egypt to experience pressing demand on its animation outsourcing services from Arab countries, in particular the GCC, which includes Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman. Therefore, a number of studios were established to provide outsourcing services for the Arab animation industry (Alamir, 2012; Ezzat, 2012; Jamal, 2012). Due to the availability of a low-cost skilled workforce and a better media infrastructure than other Arab countries, with the establishment of its Media City, which hosts pan-Arab channels such as MBC, Rotana and ART, Egypt created a media hegemony for pan-Arab media for its moving image industries including cinema and television drama (Yushi, 2012). Although there are no official data that show the number of sales for the animation industry in Egypt, this local and regional demand is likely to have increased the growth of animation industry sales, according to interviews with the studio managers.

A further indicator that shows the Egyptian animation industry has moved to its Growth stage is the increasing number of firms that compete in the market. Although the number of firms is moderate and still relatively small, the increase indicates that the risk of establishing firms within the animation industry is now acceptable, due to the profit that can be accrued from local and regional demand.

Moreover, a common feature of the Growth stage is that the quality of products are improved as a result of knowledge creation and diffusion (Porter, 1980; Grant, 2005).

In Egypt, the quality of animation has improved compared with its beginnings due to the increase in the skilled workforce. As higher education institutions can be considered the main industry input providers (Bramwell & Wolfe, 2008), it is clear that the establishment of a number of higher education institutions that offer animation and related courses has assisted in the increased availability of skilled workforce in Egypt. In the 1970s, when Egyptian higher education started to offer animation courses, it was covered only in a single module at Helwan Universty (Hano, 2008). However, in the ’80s and ’90s, two other higher education institutions in Egypt started to offer animation programmes, The Higher Institution of Cinema in Cairo and AlMinia Universty in Alminia. However, only one offered an animation pathway within the Graphic department, which was Helwan University. According to an interview with Dr Layla Fekhery (2014), the programme leader for animation at the Higher Institution of Cinema, who also teaches animation courses in a number of higher education institutions in Egypt, the number of higher institutions offering animation courses increased in the 2000s as a number of international universities were established in Egypt, such as The American University, the Canadian College and The German University; in addition, a number of government college¹¹ training centres that provided animation models and pathways within related design courses emerged. Table 5 below shows the name and the location of all the higher education institution that currently offer animation courses in Egypt.

Name of the institution Course title Location

Helwan University Animation pathway within Graphic Design

Programme in the Faculty of the Fine Art

Helwan

Alminia University Animation department in the Faculty of Arts Alminia

11

The Higher Institution of Cinema

Animation Programmes Cairo

Helwan University Animation Programme in the faculty of Applied Art Helwan

The German

University

Computer graphic module within Media Engineering and Technology faculty

Cairo

The American

University

Animation module within Art of Film Programme Cairo

The Canadian College Broadcasting module within Mass Communication Programme

Cairo

October 6 University Animation module within Media Programme October 6 October 6 University Animation module within Cinema and Television

Programme much greater number of higher education institutions with animation programmes (Kenny & Broughton, 2011), this indicates that Egypt does not have sufficient animation education providers to enable it to move its animation industry from the Growth to the Maturity phase.

Another aspect that has assisted the improvement in quality of animation production in Egypt is that more investment has been received from local broadcasters and broadcasters from other Arab countries. This investment is likely to have assisted new entrants to overcome capital requirements. According to an interview with Jamal

(2012), the manager of Cairo Cartoon Studio, in the 1990s, the Egyptian Television and Radio Union was a strategic partner for the animation studios in Egypt and incurred all the production costs. Such significant investment from this key body in Egypt assisted many studios with investing more in improving their capacity and capability.