iNTROdUcTiON
eXAMples OF TelecOM pARTNeRships ANd AlliANces Telecom carriers are the backbone of this industry in order to provide the bandwith required for watching videos. Here are a few alliances which indicate the importance of bundling and forging partnerships for distribution of OTT services:
Telly Zain
Vodafone
VIVA
Starz Play
Ooredoo
Orange Etisalat
Istikana
Orange
Sources: Telly, STArz Play, Istikana
STC
STC
Unmiya
Maroc Telecom The dispARATe FORMATs iN
flexibility to switch, changing from one
does not have a content distributor offering
which cONTeNT FlOws
solution to another is still not as easy. Most
it. In the MENA region, however, content
Most leading broadcasters and pay TV
feature sets offered by vendors are similar in
piracy is perpetrated by willing defaulters
operators have a standards and practices team
their datasheets and, therefore, many media
who offer content that is already available
that defines the requirements for content at
companies use at least two to three solutions
at a price, thereby directly impacting the
source level as well as the distribution side.
for their various content processing needs.
revenue of pay TV/ OTT operators. Media
However, content continues to be sourced
companies are still struggling to get around
in multiple formats and the quality of video
cONTeNT pROTecTiON
this challenge and looking for more efficient
across a vast library is often not consistent.
The MENA media industry continues to
ways to stem piracy.
Having to process this content in a format
flag content piracy as their number one
that can be applied for multimedia is still
challenge. Content protection has three
diy OR Ovp
time-consuming.
dimensions – a conditional access system
The growth for the media industry has been
(that locks down devices that can access
muted over the last two years resulting in
pROcessiNG FOR MUlTiMediA
content), digital rights management (which
cautious investment. Most companies are
There is a a huge leap in compression
is establishing boundaries for distribution
often caught in a dilemma of whether to do it
technologies today. Prices for encoding and
of content by device, region and network)
yourself (DIY) and set up a platform in their
transcoding solutions have fallen by about
and watermarking (applying a signature to
studio/headend or use the services of an online
three times; good compression solutions
the content that enables a company to track
video platform.
are available that can be run on off-the-
down the source of piracy and shut it down).
shelf IT servers without having to worry as
In most parts of the world, while piracy
scalability in operations that the company
much about scalability and there are codecs
exists, it has reduced in volume and is
wants to achieve, the number of viewers it
that are efficient in compressing HD and
perpetrated in regions which had no access
wants to target, the regions it wants to target
4K content for IP distribution. While ease
to the content anyway and was triggered by
and ways in which it wants to monetise content.
of use of technology has increased, the
unavailability.
However there are still many technology
This can be answered in terms of the
challenge that most media companies have
A basic example is where an episode of
teams within media companies who do not
today is the burden of their legacy solutions.
Game of Thrones may have been downloaded,
necessarily understand IT well. This brings a
While software-heavy solutions allow more
distributed and watched in a country that
host of other challenges.
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