Euromedia February March - Page 20

Cover Story

Cover Story

( Taqnia Space of Saudi
Arabia ). It will hopefully
launch by 2019 ,” added
Balkheyour . Arabsat also
has thoughts on other
expansion possibilities .
“ Our roadmap ? We are
constantly reviewing
where we should go ,
where we should invest .
There is no doubt for
us that data , in all its
forms , is important for
the future . And this
could take many forms , including backhaul and OTT . And this might include not just Geostationary ,” he admits . MERGER . With the recent news that Intelsat is merging with OneWeb and its planned constellation of up to 2,000 Low Earth Orbiting satellites totally changes the orbiting model for the industry . The merger , facilitated by Japan ’ s SoftBank , also seemed to worry the market given that the new pairing taps almost exactly into every existing operator ’ s ’ s target backhaul and broadband market . Not helping matters is the growing confidence in a pending agreement between Eutelsat and ViaSat ( of California ) and their joint plans for a ViaSat 3 satellite over Europe and beyond and to deliver
Source : Digital TV Research February 2017 its manifest according to Balkheyour . “ Broadcasters are definitely working towards HD . They recognise the improvements in quality . Some of the larger customers , with a strong free-to-air offering , will maintain dual transmission ( in SD and HD ) but the pay-TV operators are heavily moving to HDTV .” Arabsat is also looking at other orbits besides geostationary . “ We are looking at LEO and MEO [ Low Earth orbit / medium Earth orbit ], and very seriously ,” confirms Balkheyour . “ We
multiple spot-beams to the under-served regions where current broadband service is inadequate or non-existent .
There ’ s another existing broadband supplier increasingly busy in
Arabsat ’ s space , and this is the SES / O3b combination of geostationary and MEO
“ We have been working on content being part of the carrier ’ s bundle and an all-in-one pricing plan .” - Marwen
Shehab , Voddler
cannot afford to miss the developments .
How much we can invest and how we might invest is part of the strategic study now being worked on . We have not finalised our strategy . In general , we think it is better to partner for many
satellites . SES ’ s CEO Karim Michel Sabbagh talked about growth rates in the Mobility sector of 95 % over the past three years , its best-performing segment and helped by O3b and its links – and service - to Facebook . As if anticipating the Intelsat + OneWeb deal , Sabbagh said : “ O3b literally has a five-year time to market advantage versus any other comparable fleet that people entertain .” O3b will launch another eight satellites starting this coming winter ( 2016-17 ) and 2018 . By mid- 2018 , O3b will have 20 satellites in orbit .
Arabsat has around 150 HDTV channels on
obvious reasons , not least to gain knowledge from one another , and to share the market and risk . The minute you enter the LEO or MEO market you are then global . But this isn ’ t easy . We need the infrastructure on the ground , as well as the landing rights and other regulatory obligations . At the beginning , it would be wise to partner , but we are not yet in a position to make a decision . We have to make a decision soon , and we expect to present to our Board this year .” CAPACITY . Arabsat ’ s fleet is new and with powerful beams . But sharing its 25.5 / 26
degree ‘ hot spot ’ is its shareholder in the shape of Qatar ’ s Es ’ Hail Sat , already with capacity available and a new Japanese-built satellite on the near-horizon ( likely to be launched later in 2017 ). Es ’ hail-2 brings to the broadcast hotspot additional Ku-band capacity to support the growth of the broadcast sector in the region , with high definition and 4K channels in sports and entertainment genres . “ With Es ’ hail-1 and Es ’ hail-2 satellites , Es ’ hailSat ’ s focus was within Middle East and North Africa . However , our goal has been and is to be a strong and reliable satellite operator and service provider in the global arena . In this regard , we have been exploring new satellite programs via acquisition , joint ventures , hosted payload and other investment models . These discussions are on-going with some in advanced stages , which we hope will materialise over the course of the year ,” says Es ’ HailSat ’ s CEO Ali Ahmed Al Kuwari .
“ In terms of regions , we believe Africa and South East Asia holds a lot of promise and we are working on opportunities in those regions . There is opportunity for growth in the telecom sector in these regions . In addition , HTS is definitely an area of interest for us , with options on GEO and LEO being considered for future ES ’ HailSat programmes .”
According to Al Kuwari , Es-Hail is currently carrying close to 70 video channels on Es ’ hail-1 , out of which over 40 channels are in high definition ( HD ). “ The channels are distributed across GCC and North Africa , however some channels are also received in Saharan Africa and in Turkey . A large number of these channels are premier sports , movies and entertainment channels of beIN and Al Jazeera , however we are also supporting and promoting niche Arabic channels via Es ’ hail-1 for distribution across the region . With Es ’ hail-2 scheduled to join Es ’ hail-1 at the Middle Eastern hotspot of 25.5 ° E / 26 ° E , we expect a large number of new channels to join the ES ’ HailSat neighbourhood ,” he advises . APPETITE . “ Over the last 12 months , there has been a number of international entertainment and movie channels launched in the region ; however , the appetite for Arabic language content has also increased ,” notes Al Kuwari . “ Major networks are looking to launch more premier channels that appeal to the masses , especially the younger generation . While at the same time , niche Arabic channels are being rolled out to whet the appetite for entertainment based on regional culture and history . Pay-TV with its aggressive growth plans will see higher growth in the number of
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