coverstory_cover story 26/02/2015 10:23 Page 2
in some cases – a shortage of capacity. The
Eutelsat-Nilesat 7/8 degrees West slot offers
viewers more than 1,000 channels, and
claims an audience reach that has almost
doubled in four years to 52m (from 27.1m in
2010).
Arabsat are aggressively expanding (with
Media Speed) their Riyadh HQ to handle
Saudi Arabia’s desire for new channel
growth out of the Kingdom.
SES and Abu Dhabi-backed Yahlive is
typical in that its new capacity to the region
is now finding its feet. Which is not to say
that the first year or two, following its 2011
launch, were not a struggle. The initial target
market, to be the region’s first “all HDTV”
satellite didn’t work out as
planned. But also part of its
core strategy was to target its
East beam on the Eastern
Gulf, including Iraq, Iran and
Afghanistan, and my goodness
that has worked well.
CEO Sami Boustany, says
his platform’s new business
model is working extremely
well. The extra channels have
certainly responded to the ‘If
we build it they will come’ mantra. In
October 2014, Yahlive announced that it had
won support from the BBC in the form of its
Persian/Farsi services and BBC Arabic
channel. They are now active from Yahlive’s
52.5 degrees East position.
TRACTION. Boustany says that channel
growth is up more than 140% this past year,
and is now serving some 5m homes in the
region, and more than 120 channels. “What
we have seen is a great deal of interest and
traction in the East beam mainly with Farsi
services which is proving to be a great
business. The channels are not controversial
and most of the channels were already being
carried on other platforms. What we have
done is to provide the Farsi environment and
allowed the broadcasters to consolidate their
channels onto a dedicated neighbourhood
for the region.”
Yahlive’s East beam also covers much of
the Gulf region in order to reach the Farsispeaking diaspora working and living in the
Gulf. “For the time being we are looking to
find the best coverage that we can, with the
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