irdeto dubai_dubai 24/04/2014 12:18 Page 1
OTT in the
Middle East
The robust health of the Middle Eastern broadcast
sector was in evidence at the busy CABSAT MENA
show in Dubai. Advanced Television took the
opportunity to sound out some key players on the
fast developing OTT sector.
t an event hosted by Irdeto
and MGI, executives from a
range of providers gathered
to share views on the contribution of
OTT and the development of TV
Everywhere services.
Abe Naga, head of digital for MBC,
explains that the broadcaster had begun its
online service: Shahid – or 'Watch' in
Arabic – in 2008. “We started as a small
service with catch-up TV on our web site.
We found it was very,
very popular and by
2010 decided there
was potential to grow
it as a stand-alone
service. Now it has its
own domain and is a
catch up player for
television, not just MBC channels. It’s a
free service with revenue from advertising
but we are looking at
other models, including
subscription, adding more
content and offering
different release windows.
You can access the service
through multiple devices
including connected TVs.”
David Hanson, director
of digital at OSN, says developing OTT
services is not simply a defensive play
against the threat of global
providers such as Netflix.
“We’re always looking to how
our subscribers want to
consume the service and so
it’s a value proposition that
is very much part of the
subscription package. It is certainly an
excellent anti-churn tool; it means the
subscriber sees the value of their
subscription day in, day out for many
more hours, it can transform the value for
A
money perception of the service.”
So what are the challenges in rolling
out OTT in the region? Adam Nightingale,
senior director strategic sales, Irdeto: “The
biggest hurdle is actually around content
availability. We know there’s demand, we
know there’s devices, and the bandwidth
infrastructure is good or improving
rapidly. Our YouGov survey of consumer
attitudes shows that here, as elsewhere,
sport is a really big driver of OTT
consumption.”
Jim White, senior
solutions architect with
MGI, says the
complexity of the OTT
systems can be a
barrier: “There are the
web pages for static
content, the linear streaming of the video,
there’s the Conditional Access security,
and authentication. So,
there’s a lot to be brought
together and integrated
and some equipment is
better than others for
different parts of the job.
The most important task,
then, is to integrate those
systems and it is
complex.”
Marwan Shehab, senior manager
content management and
platforms, EIT, believes OTT
can have a major impact. “I
think the existing DTH pay
providers do a good job of
delivering first pay-TV
window rights content. But
there is an opportunity for pure play OTT
in this region and it is in getting a suitable
package of content, both in Arabic and
Western languages, that is at the right price
point