We hear there are new developments in the MENA for Eutelsat? Yes, Eutelsat has made a long-term commitment to the MENA region. Together with Nilesat, we have established fantastic reach from 7/8° West, which represents a strong and powerful hotspot in the region. More than 50 million homes or two-thirds of all homes in the […]
We hear there are new developments in the MENA for Eutelsat?
Yes, Eutelsat has made a long-term commitment to the MENA region. Together with Nilesat, we have established fantastic reach from 7/8° West, which represents a strong and powerful hotspot in the region. More than 50 million homes or two-thirds of all homes in the region are served through this neighbourhood.
We are constantly looking for ways to expand our reach and service in these territories and are now embarking on a new initiative with the relocation of a DTH broadcast satellite named Eutelsat 7B to the MENA region. Launched last year, the new satellite is co-located with Eutelsat 7A (which is used by Digiturk) at 7° East to expand the Turkish, Farsi and Kurd neighbourhoods. This redeployment complements our Hot Bird neighbourhood at 13° East, which is the second most-watched position in the Middle East after 7/8° West.
As a result of this deployment, a single consumer DTH antenna equipped with a dual LNB can have access to five satellites: three HOT BIRD satellites at 13°E and two satellites at 7°E (Eutelsat 7A, Eutelsat 7B). This expands more than 400 free-to-air channels already broadcasting at 13° East (of which 100 are regional channels) with 220 channels on Eutelsat 7A and an upcoming 180 channels on Eutelsat 7B, resulting in a neighbourhood of close to1500 channels that can be received in the region.
Do you need a new satellite, given that Hot Bird has a strong footprint in this region?
As Eutelsat 7A is already an established and popular satellite for the region, we decided to bring additional resources to 7° East for the Turkish market but the offerings were not limited to that. We see a lot of demand from the Kurdish regions in Iran and Iraq and Eutelsat 7B has an optimised footprint over these regions. Hot Bird is a pan-European satellite system with coverage extending across North Africa and the Middle East. A lot of channels that select to broadcast from this neighbourhood deliver regional content into the Middle East and North Africa. We have a strong line-up of Farsi and Kurdish channels already broadcasting from this neighbourhood. With increasing demand for home programming, a dedicated satellite for the region will serve its needs even better.
How is the new satellite helping consumers and broadcasters?
Eutelsat 7B brings dedicated capacity for the region, which means smaller dish sizes, better signal quality, and more channels. We have 12 transponders on the satellite’s MENA beam that can immediately fulfil market demand. Depending on where the broadcaster wants to start its business, it can reach into more than six million homes, mainly in Turkey, with a spillover to Kurdish regions.
The new satellite offers opportunities for broadcasters to build their business from scratch without relying on existing platforms and to gain an edge over the competition. Its a gateway to new territories for broadcasters, particularly northern areas, such as Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria, that are less served by other satellites. We are targeting better reach to 60 million households with the new launch.
The advantage for consumers is more content, more channels and better reception. Hot Bird is at a very strategic position in this region, watched in at least 10 million homes in Iran and three million in Iraq. All that these viewers need to do is change the LNB to dual feed or just clip for a clipsat.
Consumers will benefit from hundreds of new channels now.
Which broadcasters will be using the new satellite?
We are in advanced discussions with major broadcasters of Farsi, Kurdish and Azerbaijani content. Along with these, we have seen a greater demand from broadcasters offering HD and pay-TV content.
Where do you see scope for growth in these territories?
If you compare HD penetration in MENA to other regions of the world, you can see significant scope for HD growth. HD adoption is fairly less in the region.
The number of households equipped with HD-ready sets in the region is constantly growing and we anticipate that channels will take advantage of this increased penetration of higher quality consumer equipment.
The region presently has 200 or more HD channels, which is less than 10% of the number of channels beamed here. This offers scope for growth.
Broadcasters and pay-TV operators in the UAE have formed an anti-piracy consortium to fight illegal transmission of content. As a satellite operator, what is your role in that?
Eutelsat is a member of the new anti-piracy coalition set up in March this year and we are committed to contributing our know-how and experience from other markets to support this issue.
The coalition has outlined a voluntary code of conduct and will monitor piracy on satellite TV to ensure information about pirate channels is shared among legitimate industry players.
The consortium’s efforts would be directed to act jointly against illegitimate players.
Piracy of microwave and satellite systems is an issue in many regions and is not unique to the Middle East. Legislation and media authorities also have to be very strict in checking if proper practices are followed. Eutelsat mainly operates indirectly through partners in the MENA. Our partners check that the channels they are uplinking have passed through proper legal channels. These challenges are part and parcel of broadcasting and should be handled by strong media regulations.
Infrastructure providers whether IP, cable, microwave or satellite need to ensure two things. Firstly, that a channel has a licence; and secondly, that it has the rights to the content that it is showing.
When we sell satellite capacity to broadcasters, we ensure that their broadcasting licences are valid. If they dont have content rights, we can take steps only on a legal foundation. Once we have confirmation that they are broadcasting content illegally, their operations can be switched off.
How is satellite keeping in step with the changing ways of content consumption?
With the changing content consumption habits of viewers, the satellite industry has developed solutions for in-home distribution. We have developed an interactive LNB, that we call the ‘smart LNB’, which allows consumers to receive satellite and IP in one box.
This way, the consumer combines the best of the both worlds. We offer satellite for broadcast distribution and IP for individual needs, thereby creating bundles that help broadcasters to optimise their relationship with viewers.
Satellite also represents a solid redundancy platform for broadcasters.
We have, for example, a big customer in Kenya, an IP and pay-TV provider, that has opted for a satellite backup so that if an IP stream breaks, the channel goes via satellite.
New developments in broadcasting are giving rise to new business models but the value of satellite remains. Digital migration, for example, works most efficiently as a combination of terrestrial and satellite.
For instance, France spent USD 800 million to upgrade to digital but could manage only 95% of the areas. The country, therefore, still needs satellite to extend reach of channels to the 5% of homes not reached by the terrestrial network. Italy spent $600 million to cover 70% of the country. It used satellite to bridge the gap for the remaining 30%. Satellite is not dispensable despite breakthroughs in other infrastructure.
Africa has been slow for digital migration uptake. By 2016, more than half of the countries in Africa will not have achieved digital migration.
We are in close talks with infrastructure providers and governments in the continent to present solutions that will work best for these countries.
What, according to you, is the future of satellite?
Satellite is an unbeatable technology where terrestrial infrastructure is a challenge. IP is promising but it has its own set of challenges; for example, you cannot receive HD programming at peak times.
This is when the bandwidth dips and HD down-converts to SD, and that too is a problem at times.
For example, when HBO showed the first episode of season 4 of Game of Thrones, they gave IP users a window of advantage before the episode was beamed on satellite and cable. More than 12 million users tried to watch the series but the network completely crashed and it took HBO several hours to fix it.
I see TV consumption in the future as a hybrid, a combination of infrastructures where each will play a role.
Satellite will continue to have its advantage of beaming from one to many and we are committed to continuing to devise ways that will help broadcasters build and expand their relationship with viewers.
