Cover Story
Cover Story
MENA: The shape of broadcasting in
2025
By any measure, there is no one description – or forecast – that applies to the whole MENA area. What is happening in go-getting Dubai or Abu Dhabi and Kuwait will certainly not apply to Afghanistan, or even Egypt. Chris Forrester takes a close look at current – and future – prospects for the region.
The MENA region’ s broadcasting picture can seem healthier than ever. But just below the surface there are much the same anxieties in place as 10, or even, 20 years ago. For example: In that 20-year period, the region has created three world-class airlines in Emirates, Etihad and Qatar. It is also fair to say that in broadcasting, the region has created impressive portfolios of channels from MBC, and from the news operation of Al Jazeera and its stablemate in sports at beIN. But little else. In terms of advertising support, the region remains in the televisual stone age, with minuscule ad revenues.
And while pay-TV, since the combination of Showtime and Orbit has – at very long last – proven that profits can be generated, the pay-TV sector still struggles. Moreover, pay- TV( other than with sport) is yet to capitalise on local enthusiasm for home-grown entertainment programming. There’ s a strong willingness to embrace new concepts and formats, but frequently limited in scope by the domination of‘ bought in’ formats from‘ Western’ producers.
Indeed, a recent study( from Digital TV Research) on the Middle East and North Africa’ s pay-TV prospects wiped out a staggering $ 1 billion in anticipated revenues from their previous study which talked about $ 5 billion a year being generated in 2021. That’ s now down to a disappointing $ 4 billion. Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research, explained:“ Along with long-running
“ The major broadcasters are migrating to HD and we are carrying 25 channels.”- Sami Boustany, YahLive conflicts and slower economic growth, several countries( notably Turkey and Egypt) have suffered substantial currency devaluation. OTT is creating competition to traditional pay-TV operators. It’ s not all bad news, with Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE enjoying good growth.” TARGET. It is fair to say that countries such as Kazakhstan are not high on Hollywood’ s target list for growth! Murray adds that legitimate pay-TV revenues will reach $ 4.12 billion by 2022, up by 17 % from $ 3.52 billion in 2016. Five countries will contribute more than three-quarters of the region’ s pay-TV revenues in 2022. The number of pay-TV homes will increase by nearly 5m between 2015 and 2022 to 19.52m. About 18.7 % of TV households paid for TV signals by end-2016, which will climb to 22.2 % by 2022.
Turkey’ s Digiturk will remain the region’ s pay-TV operator leader in subscriber terms- by some distance. Second-placed beIN formally acquired Digiturk in September 2016. beIN itself is forecast to have 1.67m satellite TV subscribers by 2022 – ahead of OSN’ s 1.5m [ so excluding subscribers to their channels on other platforms such as IPTV and cable ]. beIN will overtake OSN in 2019. However, OSN is the largest pay-TV operator when measured in revenue terms. OSN’ s packages are expensive even compared with the most developed countries. PIRACY. Of course, Murray’ s data doesn’ t include the illegal revenues being gathered
from piracy in its many forms in the region. Piracy, frequently quite blatant in the form of transmission signal theft, remains unregulated and near-ungovernable. Much the same applies to satellite signal jamming and interference, again almost free from sanctions.
The problem of so-called channels which blatantly steal copyright material has improved over the past year or so thanks to strong actions by the Mena Anti-Piracy Coalition( MENAAPC). The likes of MBC, OSN, Rotana, ART and others keep a close watch on how their material is stolen, and channels are taken down. MENAAPC says that it will pursue channels which steal and infringe copyrights, and reminds those transgressing that these actions are“ punishable by imprisonment and fines in most of the Arab countries copyright laws”.
Khalid Balkheyour, CEO at Arabsat, condemns the pirates.“ Piracy will never disappear. There will always be pirates and thieves. We are extremely active with the MENA Anti-Piracy Coalition and have switched off many channels that were stealing content. We are trying to keep this under control, and the number of pirated channels is well down on a year or two ago. As far as signal jamming is concerned, we are making good progress, helped by our contacts at the ITU, ASBU and EBU, and carrier identification is
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