Time is Saudi Arabia’s first multitalent agency created with the purpose to develop the entertainment and show business industry. The company aspires to set higher standards for artists across different platforms as well as to discover talents and provide them with the support they need to make it big.
The agency got its name when Muath Khlifawi, founder of Time, was contacted by a director to hire a comedian for his new TV series. “I recommended an artist and we began the process of contacting him. After all the trouble the director and I went through in contacting the artist, and most importantly, the time we wasted, I decided to name this company Time,” Khlifawi said. “It is named Time because its main mission is to shrink the existing gap between talent and client,” he added.
There is immense talent in the country and the region, but there aren’t enough professional representation endeavors that seek to advance talents and careers, according to Khlifawi. “Artists are in desperate need of decent representation that contributes to the enhancement of their professional image, financial being, and load of work,” he said.
The major obstacles Time faced and is still facing are to convince talents that this is actually a good thing for them. “Since it is a new field in the region, talents are hesitant to join and as creative individuals are known for, they are afraid of commitment. Nonetheless, I think this is a temporary issue, and will be solved with time,” said Khlifawi. “Artists in more professional environments, such as, the US and the UK have agents even if they are not famous, as it is believed that agents play a major role in an artist’s success in terms of securing unique opportunities for them. Another obstacle we faced is the importing of proper procedures from much more cultivated environments while adding a touch of our own creativity,” he added.
Time aims to create a pool of talented individuals that complete one another and build a creative society in which their talents can interact and benefit each other. “We also want to create icons in show business and help advance the careers of those who have already launched an artistic career,” said Khlifawi. “We also aim to discover fresh young talent and position them where needed,” he added.
The talent agency started as a small idea that Khlifawi wanted to work on for a while. He was initially hesitant, thinking about the risk involved and the uncertainty of financial returns. “As I kept talking about the idea with friends and acquaintances, I found much support and they were all in favor of the idea. Since I love taking risks, I decided to do it,” he said. “Signing talented individuals was not much of an issue as I have a wide network of talented individuals in the industry, thanks to my previous live entertainment event production venture,” he added.
Today and almost six months after the launch, Time has 16 signed talents, from photographers and comedians to actors and public speakers. The agency aims to sign 30 more talents by the end of its first year. “We provide each talent with basic representation and management service; we also provide them with investment and development,” said Khlifawi. “As their agents, we will do whatever is best for talents. There is a lot of controversy about social media personnel not being big admirers of the TV industry. This is true to some extent, but under the right circumstances, the big screen is definitely an option. We always say that we’re open to evaluate and test any possible endeavors for the talents,” he added.
Time mainly uses social media to discover talent. “We look at YouTube videos, to be specific. As Saudi Arabia does not have many live events or street performances, we heavily rely on YouTube videos. Thus, I strongly recommend talented individuals to post their art on YouTube,” said Khlifawi. “At Time, we have many ambitions, but the next step is to make sure that we have a sustainable business model and provide a steady level of services to our clients and talents. After that, we can expand to sign more talented individuals,” he added.
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