Dubai: Abu Dhabi-based satellite broadcasting company YahLive sees need for integration of cellular and satellite infrastructures to offload heavy video traffic from terrestrial (fibre) networks and reap benefits.
Sami Boustany, CEO of YahLive, told Gulf News on the last day of Cabsat at the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), that satellite always has a key role to play in the architecture of future networks and the acceleration of digitisation and “we are starting to see it”.
The telecom industry and the satellite industry have become more “intertwined”.
He said that there are still some regional telco operators who find it difficult to cover the entire territory, especially in remote areas.
“Linear channels [IPTV] are putting a lot of pressure on the terrestrial networks. The industry is now realising that they need to look at hybrid systems between satellite and OTT [over-the-top]. So, anything on-demand will have to be reserved for terrestrial networks and anything that has to do with linear TV will have to be satellite,” he said.
Yahlive is a joint venture between satellite operator SES and Yahsat, parent company of YahLive and part of Mubadala, the investment arm of the Abu Dhabi Government.
“Telcos realise that they need just to lease a space on the satellite rather than invest a lot on base stations. Many telcos globally are investing in space and in ground for future needs,” he said.
However, he said that UAE will never become a satellite DTH (direct to home) market as the terrestrial infrastructure is very good.
With more than 25 million viewers watching channels beamed by YahLive East beam, which covers the Middle East and Levant, the company has grown 140 per cent in number of channels in the last 18 months and grew 60 per cent last year.
“We are targeting broadcasters that cater to specific communities and specific regions and we were able to do that very fast last year. We cover around 30 per cent of the globe and around 15 per cent of the total population,” he said.
YahLive has more than 100 channels on East beam.
He said that satellite will continue to be the “preferred platform” for most broadcasters in the region as the IP-based infrastructure in most of our footprints is still not adequate amid increase in number of linear channels.
“We will hit capacity very soon and have plans to double that within a year to increase capacity,” he said.
YahLive’s current capacity is 23 transponders.
The biggest challenge the company face is to convince broadcasters to move to more efficient transmissions.
“Efficient transmission means for the same quality [standard definition or high definition], broadcasters need less bandwidth and pay for less capacity because they use more efficient compression technology,” he said.
He said the entire region is working on legacy systems. Around 90 per cent of all transmissions are still using MPEG2 format.
The reason why broadcasters are not ready to do that, he said is because the consumers don’t have HD set-top-boxes. If they do it now, then they [studios] need to invest in HD cameras and update their studios to become HD ready.
“If broadcasters need to broadcast a channel in HD [MPEG4 format] they can do it for Mbps. If they use the old legacy transmission [MPEG2], then they need to use around 10 Mbps to get the same HD quality,” he said.
The company sees another 40 per cent growth this year as there is still room for growth.
“We are very optimistic about the future and looking at the regions we cover, we are here to stay,” he said.
