Multimedia home gateways to see big growth in region
Free-to-air channels are still the king in the Middle East
Dubai: Set-top boxes (STBs) served as the bridge from analog to digital broadcasting a decade ago, but now vendors have started to launch multimedia home gateways to bridge the gap between broadcast and Internet Protocol (IP) video distribution.
Multimedia home gateways are devices which can be seen on different form factors – TVs, tablets, smartphones, computers – with a single IP-based architecture for receiving and distributing satellite signals.
“Free-to-Air channels are still the king in this region and it is unlimited unlike the IP-based channels,” Mani Nair, Associate vice-president of marketing at Eurostar told Gulf News.
He said Eurostar launched the first convergence device in the region. “We are expecting to see a big demand as it is cost-effective and unlimited devices can be connected to a single system and different channels can be viewed on different devices.”
The SAT>IP device takes the satellite signals and converts it into digital IP format. With WiFI router users can watch in different devices.
“Right now we have launched only for free-to-air channels and we will be launching a similar concept for pay-TV channels also,” Nair said.
According to Bilal Abo Alul, project manager at Saudi-based Selevision, free-to-air channels are still the most viewed by consumers as there are more than 1,000 channels.
According to Informa Telecoms and Media , there are 80 million television households in the Middle East and North Africa market. Today satellite television reaches 65 per cent of them, but by 2016 that proportion will rocket to 80 per cent.
“In an IP-based platform like eLife, there is a limit of not more than 500 channels and it is a pay service. People are not ready to spend for watching the channels, especially in other parts of the Middle East,” Alul said.
According to IHS iSuppli, multimedia home gateways are set to climb from just 90,000 in 2011 to 9.6 million in 2015 as pay pay-TV operators are seeking to unify the delivery of different forms of video content to all types of devices in homes, including media tablets and smartphones.
“You need separate set-top boxes for each satellite dishes and this devices minimises the cables and set-top boxes into one,” Nair said.
“Multimedia home gateways allow operators to consolidate content delivery around their networks regardless of the viewing device,” said Anna Maxbauer, senior analyst at IHS iSuppli, said in a statement.
Maxbauer said the increasing integration of WiFi home networking within MHGs underscores the commitment of operators to support multiscreen video in the home. WiFi penetration in MHGs is forecast to grow to 73 per cent of units shipped by 2016, up from just 18 per cent in 2012.
