Key Areas for Investment
While operating an OTT platform in MENA is likely to prove challenging for all involved, investment in technology is already occurring as a result of competition between PayTV, SVOD platforms and local telcos. As outlined before, user experience is likely to be a key differentiator for the various competitors.
An intuitive user experience and enhanced personalisation/ content discovery capabilities will be a key battleground, as will the ability to access services via apps – given that MENA is such a high-penetration mobile market. Starzplay has done well as a result of making all content available with Arabic subtitles – and also providing a French-language option in North Africa. The platform also launched a content download feature so that its users did not require an internet connection or data for playback. This requires the use of advanced compression tech.
Gracenote is active in MENA. Earlier this year, the company launched its Global Video Data offering in the Middle East to help drive next-generation TV and movie search, discovery and navigation for emerging digital and IPTV platforms.
Etisalat’s E-Vision is one of the first PayTV operators to utilise the tech. “Operators and broadcasters in the Middle East are looking to use deep descriptive metadata and imagery to create new viewer experiences centered on engagement and interactivity,” said Geet Lulla, Managing Director, India, Middle East and Southeast Asia of Gracenote. “Gracenote’s new Global Video Data offering is the key enabler of (these capabilities).”
Leading CDN vendor Akamai recognised the potential in MENA when it opened a Dubai office in 2015. More recently, Chinese vendors have targeted the market. Alibaba Cloud opened a regional data centre in Dubai in 2016 and has been gearing up its activities ahead of Dubai Expo 2020. Wanli Min, Chief Data Scientist and VP of cloud computing at Alibaba, told local media “Our local team is actively engaging with different industries that are willing to adopt new technology and innovations.”
Not to be outdone, Amazon CloudFront announced its first Edge Location in Bahrain (August 2019). With this location, “viewers in Bahrain will see up to a 40% improvement in latency when accessing content via CloudFront,” said Amazon.
In terms of the platforms that deliver content into MENA homes and businesses, satellite, fibre-to-the-home and 5G all play a part. Satellite remains the default delivery system across MENA’s vast geographic expanse, but fibre is rolling out rapidly in advanced economies such as the UAE. As for 5G, Ericsson echoes Ovum’s comments when it predicts that there will be 30 million 5G subs in the Middle East and Africa by 2024.
A case in point is UAE-based telecoms giant Etisalat, which has earmarked $1bn for digital transformation. Speaking at 5G MENA 2019, Etisalat International CTO Hatem Bamatraf said the telco (which is working in partnership with Ericsson) is aiming to build 1,000 5G towers across the UAE during 2019 to enable 5G coverage. Spin-off benefits from 5G deployment will include a boost for the region’s 4K, gaming and AR/VR firms.
International companies positioned to take advantage of the Gulf’s 5G revolution include Huawei, which has strategic partnerships with Saudi Telecom Company and VIVA Bahrain.
Ericsson predicts 30 million 5G subs in the Middle East and Africa by 2024
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