Tooli will initially carry Arabsat’s free-to-air channels but is already in talks with pay-TV content owners and platforms to bring their content as well onto the platform with the aim of launching a paid service in the future.
Arabsat has partnered with Saudi Capabilities Company to use its platform Tooli to roll out an exclusive IPTV service as well as an OTT service for Middle East and North Africa (MENA) audiences with the ability to have global coverage, BroadcastPro ME can reveal. With this rollout, which has officially been announced at IBC, Arabsat will make its first entry into the OTT/IPTV space. Tooli will initially carry Arabsat’s free-to-air channels but is already in talks with a number of pay-TV content owners and platforms to bring their content as well onto the platform with the aim of launching a paid service in the future.
Tooli claims to presently be the only licensed platform from Saudi Arabia’s General Commission for Audiovisual Media (GCAM), the state-backed entity, responsible for the development, regulation, and supervision of audio-visual media transmission and content within the Kingdom.
“Tooli is an independent platform and we now have an alliance with Arabsat,” commented Abdullah Mohammed Al-Otaibi, VP and CTO of Digital Technology at Tooli.
“We are the only GCAM-authorised service in Saudi Arabia and this was critical for Arabsat. We have an agreement to work with ARABSAT to bring its FTA channels to its MENA audience through IPTV. The Tooli box is certified by Google and comes integrated with Chromecast. The app is supported on Apple TV, iOS, Android phones and LG Smart TV. We will soon be supported on Samsung TVs as well.”
Wail Arnous, Chief Information Officer at Tooli added that the service is truly optimized for different bandwidth situations across the MENA with the ability to scale picture quality up or down to ensure a continuous and seamless viewing experience for audiences. He added that content rights contracts will be maintained with GEO blocking applied in countries where the platform was not authorised to stream the content.
Badih Kanaan, Director of Marketing at Arabsat added: “It’s all about quality and content delivery. It was important for Arabsat to partner with a company that understood and respected the cultural sensitivities of the Arab world. This platform will launch us into the IPTV and OTT space ensuring that the channels offered on our satellite service as linear TV are also now available through the internet.”
