AI-Powered Archive Project to Preserve Egypt's Broadcast Heritage

A national project to archive and digitise Egypt's radio and television heritage has been unveiled by the National Media Authority (NMA) as part of a Digital First strategy that uses artificial intelligence to preserve and organise the country's audiovisual history.

Announced at the Maspero Television Theatre, the initiative follows directives from President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to modernise Egypt's media archive. The project will use AI to index and classify content while upgrading the technological infrastructure needed to preserve programmes dating back nearly a century.

According to Major General Dr Walid Adly Attia, Director of the Armed Forces Information Systems Department, the digitisation process is expected to be completed within two years. Minister of State for Information Diaa Rashwan said 41% of the television content included in the project is expected to be digitised by April 2027, adding that the archive represents a national asset belonging to the Egyptian people.

The archive spans material from the years following the 1926 Radio Law, which regulated private radio stations, through the launch of Egyptian Radio in 1934 and beyond. The project aims to preserve around one million audio and video tapes, equivalent to roughly 800,000 hours of historical content, by converting them from traditional storage formats into secure digital archives.

The National Media Authority said international specialist companies and advanced equipment have been enlisted to support the project while ensuring the archive is protected in line with cybersecurity and artificial intelligence standards.