Dubai: The Middle East and North Africa region is poised for a rapid uptake of TV-Everywhere services, according to an industry expert.
TV-Everywhere means all media and entertainment video available on alternative media such as internet or mobile networks and accessible through a number of devices like handsets, consoles, TV sets and other portable gadgets.
“With 76 per cent high-speed broadband penetration rate, 77 per cent TV connectivity and over 100 per cent mobile device penetration, the region is on the threshold of this [TV-Everywhere] phenomenon,” Vidya Subramanian Nath, research director, global innovation centre and digital media practice at Frost and Sullivan, said at the Cabsat 2014 exhibition which is taking place at Dubai World Trade Centre from March 11-13.
However, she said the success of providing a multiplatform, multimedia video experience to consumers and capitalising it, hinges on a shaky tightrope.
“The competitive landscape is dense, technologies are diverse, and business models are fledging for service providers to carve out a respectable market share in the space,” she said.
The Middle East TV industry is dominated by free-to-air satellite channels and the market is accelerating towards 100 per cent digital TV penetration.
Nath said pay TV will grow from 8 per cent in 2013 to 10.5 per cent in 2018, driven by growth in pay satellite and Internet Protocol TV (IPTV).
Due to the growth in connected devices which is expected to be around 545 million devices by 2020, impacting business models and personal lives in a way that is unforeseeable today.
The region will have 390 million internet users and 6-7 connected devices for every household by 2020.
“The demographics of the market and the cultural make-up contribute significantly to the demand for TV-Everywhere. Home entertainment and social networking play an important role in people’s lives. All these factors contribute to the demand for more and more content in local languages as well as international media,” she said.
Although free online video platforms such as YouTube continue to dominate the video hosting in the industry, she said, and added that a number of online content aggregators have begun to create a niche for themselves through affordable freemium and premium models in the Arab world.
In the region, TE Live, Shahid, Icflix and Istikana allow users to stream the content to up to five devices based on a subscription model.
”In order to attract more subscribers, online content aggregators need to have local content and that is the way to go and earn more revenue,” said Carlos Salim Tibi, founder and CEO of Icflix.
“The TV-Everywhere market is still in early stages and we anticipate that the market will rapidly mature over the next 24 months,” Nath added.
According to Frost and Sullivan, media and entertainment video products (including books, music and videos) will top the list of products sold online 2025 with as high as 82 per cent sales share globally.
Even though the region will slowly start reflecting these trends, Nath said that TV will unlikely fade into oblivion as many soothsayers predict in other part of the world, online and mobile video consumption will increase multi-fold, driving business strategies for media companies.
