Reports late last month about an announcement by the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority that analogue TV will be switched off in 2013 and replaced by Digital Terrestrial TV (if this is entirely accurate) in the country has sparked a huge debate within the industry. No doubt, in countries such as Saudi Arabia and the North […]
Reports late last month about an announcement by the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority that analogue TV will be switched off in 2013 and replaced by Digital Terrestrial TV (if this is entirely accurate) in the country has sparked a huge debate within the industry. No doubt, in countries such as Saudi Arabia and the North African belt where satellite and IPTV penetration is perhaps a lot lower, DTT has been an attractive proposition.
In the UAE, however, where satellite penetration is quite high and where the use of broadband is on the rise, will the introduction of DTT which will tentatively take at least five years if not longer to be available be too late and the impact, too little?
DTT has a few advantages no doubt. It would mean that advertisers can reach targeted audiences within the UAE, which has a fairly large cluster of expatriates from different parts of the Indian subcontinent, the East and Russia.
Estimates from the National Bureau of Statistics released last month show that the UAEs population has risen exponentially and was at 8.26 million by mid 2010. Discounting the labour camps and other factors, we perhaps have about 800,000 to 1 million households in the country. Would that number be attractive to advertisers? If yes, then the question is how will the authorities make DTT more attractive to residents to woo them away from satellite TV or will they compel us to watch domestically-regulated television?
Until further clarification is available from the TRA, well just have to wait and watch how this pans out.
Vijaya Cherian is the Editor of BroadcastPro Middle East magazine.
