Egypt's celebrated actor Yehya al-Fakhrani (second from right) will remind audience during Ramadan with jailed opposition figure Ayman Nur in Al-Hilali's Way.

CAIRO — With the holy fasting month of Ramadan to begin Sunday, September 24, in both countries, Egypt and Syria are bracing for a face-off to attract millions of viewers to the small screen.

Egypt, which has long been the acknowledged leader in producing soap operas for broadcast during Ramadan, has produced 50 TV series for attracting audience during the fasting month, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP) Saturday, September 23.

Syria, the new challenger, is running a close second with 45 TV series.

In addition to transmission on home networks, the challenge for production companies is to sell their soap operas abroad, especially to Arabic-language satellite channels that are widely watched throughout the Middle East.

Syria has so far managed to sell 25 soap operas on this lucrative market, according to Syrian producer Hatem Ali.

In Egypt, one of the three main production houses has sold the broadcast rights for 12 of its 23 soaps already in the can.

Negotiations are still continuing on other 15 soaps ahead of the start of Ramadan on Sunday.

Millions of Muslims across the globe will observe the holy month of Ramadan on Saturday, September 24, while others will start the annual fast a day later.

Morocco, Iran, India, Mauritania and Pakistan will be spotting the moon crescent Monday night to decide whether to start fasting Sunday or Sunday.

Hot Topics

Hot news topics are dominating the Egyptian-Syria face-off during Ramadan this year.

In "The Heathens", Syria's Najdat Anzour tackles extremist groups responsible for carrying out terrorist attacks in various Arab and Western capitals. Every three episodes, the action moves from one city to another.

"Al-Hilali's Way", by Egypt's Mohammed Fadel, is about a politician whose obscure past -- notably in the form of forged papers -- catches up with him.

It is built around celebrated actor Yehya al-Fakhrani, and will remind viewers of jailed opposition figure Ayman Nur affair.

Nur, a presidential candidate in 2005 who placed second after incumbent President Hosni Mubarak, was handed a five-year sentence in prison for allegedly falsifying documents.

In Egypt, where one company has also produced a historical religious drama called "Imam Al-Maraghi" this year, the studios tend to count on stars whose names alone are enough to attract viewers.

But this tactic has not been entirely successful in recent years, which have seen the failure of major productions tailored for TV stars such as Fakhrani.

"These soaps are written to please the stars ... instead of attracting advertisers," according to critic Sayyed Mahmoud.

Reassured by their dominance of the market, some Egyptian production companies have also taken to ignoring detail and being somewhat lax when it comes to the technical and artistic levels of their television productions.

Stepping into the breach, Syrian producers seized on the opportunity to satisfy unhappy clients and reversing the decline in viewing figures.

They came up with a large number of soaps filmed in classical Arabic to attract wider audiences in countries where the Syrian Arabic dialect is not understood.

But if in these two countries the plotlines and the actors are given wide exposure in the media, the production houses themselves tend to keep one thing very close to their chests: the revenue raked in by the soaps, which according to industry insiders is worth millions of dollars annually.