Continued from page 22 features have an enhanced online presence ,” she added . FORUM . Arabsat ’ s annual Customer Forum , held in Salalah , Oman in November was an opportunity to hear from broadcasters from across the region . Wael Al Buti , VP / CCO at Arabsat , told guests how the orbital position is growing , with more broadcasters coming onboard , and that there were now more than 170 HDTV channels on Arabsat satellites , and that 78 % of households across the GCC have their dishes turned to its 26-degree East position .
His comments were backed by Vidya Subramanian Nath , research director at Frost & Sullivan , who delivered fascinating insights into MENA TV viewing habits . She advised that there are 66m TV households in the region and ownership of HD sets topped 62 %. She added that 77 % of TV viewing is through satellite , although only 11 % of viewers subscribe to pay-TV services .
Arabsat has a powerful manifest of new satellites coming on stream over the next few years . One of the satellites ( 6D ) is being built by Saudi Arabia ’ s King AbdulAziz City for Science & Technology , and will be a jointventure with Taqnia Space which will use the craft for in-flight connectivity . Taqnia is also an anchor client on a portion of HellasSat4 ( dubbed SaudiGeoSat-1 ). The bottom line for Arabsat is that by the end of 2018 , it will have 10 operational satellites , and the youngest fleet , and - helped by its Es ’ hailSat associates - the 25.5 / 26 ° East ‘ hot spot ’ will be carrying at least 17 channels of sport , and fast-approaching 200 channels in HD . Arabsat is also looking to establish new bouquets for Cyprus and Germany , and appealing to Arab expats . PROGRESS . A relatively new player on the satellite broadcasting scene is MyHD . Despite struggling for a few years , the bouquet of channels is now making progress , claims Samir Safer , CEO . “ When you decide to launch a new pay-TV platform , you try to find strong partners . Now most channels want HD-quality content streamed . Arabsat has been a great partner for bringing HD to the region . We have a reach in 22 countries for our low-cost pay-TV platform .”
He explained that MyHD ’ s aim was to reach clients with smaller dishes and able to receive HD channels at lower costs . “ After five years , we have grown significantly in this position ,” he stated , adding that MyHD now offers different packages for different regions with bouquets for Indians and Filipinos , and a bundle of channels for the Maghreb .
BBC Global News head of distribution , Nigel Fry , says that the MENA region is extremely important to the BBC and in particular the dominant position of satellite . “ We produce content in 41 languages , and at the moment we are reaching 346 million people worldwide . Of the viewers we have , there are 43 million in the Arab world , so it ’ s a big market for us .” Fry added that while broadband was of growing importance generally , traditional satellite distribution reached far larger audiences . INVESTMENT . That audience will expand helped by further investment by Arabsat and its Qatar associates at Es ’ hailSat . A new teleport will open shortly in Qatar , thereby guaranteeing secure uplinking for its Al Jazeera and beIN Sport clients . Of course , the teleport will also be open to other channels and be ready for the 2022 FIFA World Cup hosted by Qatar . Controversial as the decision might be to award the football rights to Qatar , the local broadcast community needs to be fully ready to beam signals to the rest of the world .
While few observers expect the diplomatic crisis to last another four years , the current travel ban on Saudis and the other
“ Traditional satellite distribution reaches far larger audiences .” – Nigel Fry , BBC Global News
neighbouring nations would certainly hurt game attendance if not resolved .
Well ahead of the World Cup will be the launch of Es ’ hailSat-2 in mid-2018 . Being built by Mitsubishi Electric in Japan , the satellite will go to 26 ° East , launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket . Es ’ hailSat ’ s CEO Ali Al Kuwari signed the deal with SpaceX ’ s COO Gwynne Shotwell back in December 2016 . Es ’ hailSat has made no secret of its wish to see other satellites launched in the future , and to expand its footprints . For example , it had a major presence at a recent Turkish communications exhibition . Es ’ hailSat-2 will carry 24 Ku-band and 11 Ka-band transponders .
The news proves that , at least in space , there can be peaceful expansion in a region that still shows great promise in terms of channel growth , viewer loyalty and technical progress .
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