BroadcastPro ME May 2021

ISSUE 130 | MAY 2021

Licensed by Dubai Development Authority

Mohamad Yehya on monetising muay Thai and kickboxing in the Emirates

PROINTRO

GROUP Managing Director Raz Islam raz.islam@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 4 375 5471 Managing Partner Vijaya Cherian vijaya.cherian@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 4 375 5472 EDITORIAL

Welcome

Editor Vijaya Cherian vijaya.cherian@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 55 105 3787 Contributing Writer Nishtha Singh Sub Editor Aelred Doyle ADVERTISING Group Sales Director Sandip Virk sandip.virk@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 50 929 1845 +44 (0) 773 444 2526

DESIGN Art Director Simon Cobon Designer Percival Manalaysay CIRCULATION & PRODUCTION Production Manager Vipin V. Vijay vipin.vijay@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0)4 375 5713 Distribution Manager Phinson Mathew George phinson.george@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0)4 375 5476 DIGITAL SERVICES Abdul Baeis Sadiq Siddiqui FOUNDER Dominic De Sousa (1959-2015) Published by

In the Arab world, sport has played an increasingly significant role as a soft power. Not only has it helped launch small nations onto the international arena, it has also played a significant role in contributing to a country’s economy.

The UAE recognised this a long time ago and has gradually been adding more sports events to its annual calendar. Qatar began this journey a few years ago and is prepping to host the 2022 World Cup, while Saudi Arabia has been playing catch-up over the last two years since the Kingdom opened its doors to various forms of entertainment.

At BroadcastPro Middle East’s virtual Future of Sports Broadcasting Summit, we had some interesting conversations on how sports is being tackled both on the world stage and more uniquely in the Arab world.

With streaming services having scored a big win during the lockdown and enjoying greater appeal among younger audiences, stakeholders agreed that rights contracts would need to be revisited and renegotiated.

An interesting fact brought to our attention by UK-based piracy expert Synamedia was that in MENA alone, the loss of potential revenue in sports

The publisher of this magazine has made every effort to ensure the content is accurate on

ISSUE 130 | MAY 2021

Licensed by Dubai Development Authority

the date of publication. The opinions and views

On this month's cover…

expressed in the articles do not necessarily reflect

only to broadcasters, TV operators and others was a whopping $3.25bn. That gives an idea of the money at stake in this region for sports, and why it is held in such high regard by governments. We had a fantastic line-up of high-level speakers at our sports conference, discussing new trends and challenges in light of Covid-19.

Our issue this month is almost entirely focused on various aspects of the sports broadcast business and the discussions at our conference. Our exclusive cover story this month also sheds light on a new set of combat sports that has been brought to the UAE with all the fanfare that can enable it to be monetised.

In the meantime, I am sure all of you have heard that CABSAT has been postponed to October. But every cloud has a silver lining. CABSAT will be back during the Expo and promises to bring along an additional element that will especially be interesting to the content market. But until then, watch out for the Broadcast Tech Conference that we will be hosting in June. Stay tuned.

Vijaya Cherian, Editorial Director

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Mohamad Yehya on monetising muay Thai and kickboxing in the Emirates

Mohamad Yehya, Founding Director, IP Studios.

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May 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 1

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PROCONTENTS

Inside this issue 05 NEWS Kharabeesh and Natural Star to create Arabic content for global market; Art Format Lab to coproduce content with Egyptian company; MBC streamlines playout with Imagine; Choueiri and Zee seal exclusive deal; Eagle Films inks $13.3m deal with Hollywood studios; SBA chooses TSL; ATEME secures major Du projects; and more

16 GAME FOR MORE An exclusive interview with Mohamad Yehya, the man tasked with creating an entire 360-degree entertainment experience around Muay Thai and kickboxing in the UAE

May 2021 KHARABEESH AND NATURAL STAR TIE

05

COVER STORY - GAME FOR MORE

16

PANEL DISCUSSIONS AT THE BROADCASTPRO SPORTS BROADCASTING SUMMIT 2021

24 IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCES As AR and VR gain more respect in the sports realm, Thierry Fautier looks at the issues that need to be ironed out

28 FUTURE OF SPORTS

BROADCASTING SUMMIT BroadcastPro ME's inaugural virtual sports broadcasting summit explored how the arrival of OTT and the recent Covid-19 lockdown have impacted sport and disrupted traditional methods of production, rights distribution and monetisation.

We bring you the lowdown

28

42 INTERVIEW

INTEGRATING INTELLIGENTLY

With Suhail Ahmed, CEO of One Diversified FZ LLC

SCALING UP WITH THE CLOUD

46 TECH UPDATE Cloud-based models are paving the way for a new world order in broadcast, says Chuck Meyer

48 GUEST COLUMN Strategy& experts on the path to growth for MENA media

42

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PRONEWS

Kharabeesh and Natural Star partner to create Arabic content for global market Jordanian content developer Kharabeesh has teamed up with Dubai production agency Natural Star to create media content, TV shows, movies and documentaries in Arabic for the global market. Wael Attili, cofounder and VP of Content at Kharabeesh, said the partnership “will ensure that quality products reach the global digital video content market, which is expanding at a rapid pace and is fuelled by shifting trends”.

Najib Sabbagh, Natural

From left: Natural Star founder and CEO Najib Sabbagh with Wael Attili, co-founder and VP of Content at Kharabeesh.

Star founder and CEO, remarked: “As content in the region sets eyes on the new horizons, all local

players should look towards building strong partnerships, thus providing them with the opportunity to become

Sky News Arabia launches media training academy Sky News Arabia has launched Sky News Arabia Academy, an initiative designed to empower the next generation of Arab talent for today’s dynamic media industry.

The Academy offers more than 30 specialised academic courses in four main categories, in the Arabic language: Digital and Social Media, Technical

Mahra Al Yaqoobi is Head of Training Programmes at Sky News Arabia Academy.

Operations, Television Production and Radio Production. Candidates will also train at SNA’s studios in Abu Dhabi. Workshops and training courses will be led by experienced Arab media professionals and broadcasters, including Giselle Khoury, Nadim Koteich, Youssef Al-Tsoori and Majid Al-Farsi.

Nart Bouran, CEO

of International Media Investments, whose assets include Sky News Arabia, said: “By leveraging the established talent within our organisation and the latest technologies and techniques, we are realising our ambition to nurture the next generation of media professionals across the Middle East and North Africa.”

Courses will initially be available in the UAE and will later be extended to other GCC and Arab countries. The first training course will consist of the 26 winners of Sky News Arabia Star, a programme launched in early 2020 in cooperation with 14 universities in the Arab world.

players in the international markets. The partnership with Kharabeesh is at the core of this thought process.

This will help both of us expand further and faster. We are constantly on the move to expand our coverage to new countries, boost the impact of the shows produced and maximise our audience’s diversity. The partnership is likely to bolster the reach of Kharabeesh – an open space where illustrators, animators, designers work collaboratively.”

Saudi Sports Company secures AFC broadcast rights for KSA The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has signed an exclusive deal with Saudi Sports Company for the media rights of the AFC competitions for the commercial cycle 2021-2024, giving it exclusive rights in Saudi Arabia to broadcast AFC’s major national team and club competitions, including the AFC Asian qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup and the 2023 AFC Asian Cup, as well as the AFC Champions League.

Saudi Sports Company will initially showcase all competitions through its GSA OTT platform service, before broadcasting via satellite on TV channels in Q4 of 2021.

May 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 5

PRONEWS

Art Format Lab to co-produce content with Nahdet Misr

From left: Dina Ibrahim and Khulud Abu Homos.

Art Format Lab has signed a partnership deal with Nahdet Misr Publishing Group in Egypt to co-produce premium Arab edutainment content. Khulud Abu Homos,

CEO of Art Format Lab, commented that the lockdown has brought increasing demand for “edutainment content”.

Dina Ibrahim, CEO, Nahdet Misr Advertising, added: “This partnership comes as part of a wider plan to establish a network of partnerships with selected media and content companies who share our vision in creating edutainment content. This is a milestone for Nahdet Misr as we diversify our media activities from publishing and advertising to launching a media sector for content creation with the highest production and creative standards. This deal will see us launch a new slate of content that is in sync with the new strategy of the group.”

MBC ropes in Imagine Comms to streamline playout MBC has gone live as part of the first phase of a playout infrastructure from Imagine Communications.

MBC collaborated with Imagine to achieve the broadcaster’s goals of creating an efficient playout automation environment that protects revenue streams through multiple, interlocking redundancies, while providing opportunities for future expansion.

To deliver the costeffectiveness and operational flexibility that MBC Group sought, the entire solution at the broadcaster’s HQ in Dubai Media City has been implemented in software running on COTS hardware.

Pivotal to the installation is Imagine’s scalable Version modular playout solution,

which allows MBC to quickly and cost-effectively add new channels to meet its changing business needs, while enabling the addition of new functionalities without disruption to the broadcaster’s daily operations.

The first phase of the playout centre is equipped to deliver 11 premium HD channels with full N+N redundancy and seamless failover. Centralised control of the Versio playout channels, graphics and

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master control, as well as all third-party devices, is handled by Imagine’s ADC automation. Nexio+ AMP video servers manage content ingest with content workflows controlled using the Nexio Motion workflow orchestrator, along with the Versio IOX shared storage. The softwaredefined architecture provides interfaces to a number of external networks, including traffic and scheduling, and data sources for on-air graphics.

Mark Barkey.

Actus Digital hires Mark Barkey to strengthen Middle East business Actus Digital, a major provider of broadcast compliance and monitoring solutions, has appointed Mark Barkey as the new director of sales in the Middle East.

With Barkey, Actus Digital will provide futureproof media monitoring solutions, continuous local support, and after-sales services to Middle East customers.

“The Middle East has always been a key focus of Actus Digital’s business strategy, and we are actively engaged with major stakeholders in the market,” said Sima Levy, CEO of Actus Digital. “Mark strengthens our sales presence in the region, enabling us to respond quickly to customers’ needs for broadcast and OTT monitoring solutions. Mark’s wealth of experience and his expan-sive network of contacts will be invaluable to our growing customer base.”

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PRONEWS

Spacetoon and Pocket.watch tie to broadcast kids’ shows in MENA Spacetoon has signed a licensing deal with Pocket. watch, a digital media studio that specialises in extending kids and family YouTube stars and characters into global franchises, to be the master consumer product licensing agent

in the MENA region for the brand Love, Diana.

Spacetoon has also secured the rights to localise, dub and broadcast two shows for kid-influencer Diana across the Spacetoon free-to-air TV channel and Spacetoon GO online

Fun Asia Network targets South Asians with Big Fan TV app

Fun Asia has launched its Big Fan TV app, reportedly the region’s first free South Asian OTT service, offering the largest library of content in multiple languages and genres. The app will include a new line-up of shows, movies, serials, soaps, documentaries, podcasts and live audio, offering over 10,000 hours of free content with a primary focus on the South Asian community.

It will also include services in multiple South Asian languages, with more to be added over time.

Said Bacho joins EditShare EditShare has appointed Said Bacho as Vice President of EMEA Sales, effective immediately.

Bacho will be responsible for executing go-tomarket plans that enable customers to leverage EditShare production workflow solutions onpremise and in the cloud.

Prior to joining EditShare,

Bacho was Senior Vice President of International Sales at Operative, with a particular focus on growing sales and account management teams in EMEA. He has also held a number of similar roles with manufacturers, including Snell Advanced Media, Grass Valley, Imagine Communications and Avid.

8 | www.broadcastprome.com | May 2021

streaming service. The shows will be dubbed into Arabic and broadcast on Spacetoon TV Channel, and made available on the Spacetoon GO online streaming service.

Collectively, Diana has nearly 5bn monthly views on her 14 YouTube channels,

which provide audiences with family-friendly content in nine different languages.

As the CP licensing agent in the region, Spacetoon will launch a new line of toys and products, bringing new items to the shelves of the MENA toy market.

NMK Electronics inks distribution agreement with BrightSign AV distributor NMK Electronics has signed a GCC distribution deal with BrightSign, which designs media players and provides free software and cloud networking solutions for the commercial digital signage market. This partnership will strengthen NMK’s video portfolio.

Pierre Gillet, VP of International Sales at BrightSign, said: “We are enthusiastic about this new partnership ... and look forward to working with NMK’s team in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Lebanon and Egypt.”

StarzPlay and Abu Dhabi Media partner for new Arabic shows Abu Dhabi Media (ADM) has extended its strategic agreement with StarzPlay to broadcast six new Arabic and GCC drama series during Ramadan. Earlier this year, ADM and StarzPlay collaborated to livestream UFC events across the MENA region. This new partnership will give StarzPlay subscribers access to a range of GCC and Arabic ADM programming.

PRONEWS

IBC to consult industry on 2021 on-site plans IBC has set out more details around its plans to bring the content and technology industry together again to discover the future of media and do business face to face in Amsterdam on September 10-13, 2021, with a fall-back option in December.

Michael Crimp, Chief Executive of IBC, said: “We want to gather views from across the IBC community, and that’s why we are launching a visitor survey today and will also roll out a targeted exhibitor survey next week, in partnership with IABM. We all have

an opportunity to think differently this year. A good example of this is how we are embracing hybrid/digital to give IBC more reach than ever before. Also, we are fully prepared to shift to December if that will deliver the safest and most valuable outcome.”

IBC has selected ExpoPlatform, an AIpowered platform for hybrid and online exhibitions and conferences, to support its digital offering. The move will enable IBC to create a hybrid event that combines the best of the show floor with online interaction.

AND KVM FEELS RIGHT.

IBC 2021 will use a purpose-built perimeter around the RAI, with multiple entry points where attendees will be processed under Covid-19 health and safety protocols. Once within the perimeter, attendees will be free to move around the RAI complex without further physical checks, minimising queues and congestion.

Various technology tools like opt-in facial recognition will be used for contactless registration and badge pick-up, and AI to monitor visitor movement and control capacity in all areas.

CABSAT postponed to October 2021 CABSAT 2021 will now be held from October 26 to 28 at Dubai World Trade Centre, to explore synergies with EXPO 2020. Besides a special focus on the SATEXPO Summit, CABSAT has announced the launch of NextGen Content – a marketplace to buy, sell and co-produce TV and film content for the Arabic market. This is expected to create new areas of content collaboration that will contribute to the growth of the emirate’s creative economy.

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PRONEWS

Choueiri secures exclusive ad rights to five of Zee’s premium channels ATL Media, the commercial arm of Zee Entertainment Middle East, has appointed DigiNet Arabia, a Choueiri Group company, to take charge of its commercial advertising sales across the MENA region. The tie-up, which runs from April 1, 2021 to December 31, 2025, covers Zee Entertainment’s premium media assets – Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Zee From left: Pierre Choueiri, Manoj Keralam, Zee Alwan and Zee Aflam.

Mathew and Ashok Namboodiri.

The deal is aimed at furthering Zee’s expansion plans in the MENA region and to innovation made them the ideal will focus on promoting its TV channels choice of partners, as we are all looking to regional advertisers and brands. forward to Zee’s transformation and Manoj A. Mathew, Territory Head success in the digital age. This will also Zee Entertainment MENAPT, stated: allow us to expand our other areas of “Choueiri Group’s continued commitment investment, like Arabic movies and

Sawa Rights Management brings eight new Russian TV channels to UAE

Rotana to distribute panArabic SVOD movie channel with Alchimie

UAE content rights management company Sawa Rights Management (SRM) has announced the addition of eight new and exclusive Russian entertainment TV channels to its extensive portfolio of more than 20 Russian channels now available to hospitality and residential properties in the region: TNT, TNT4, Friday!, TV3, 8TV, UA|TV, Detski Mir and Lubimoe Kino. The Russianspeaking community will get a wide range of content ranging from comedy series to movies, reality shows, cartoons, sitcoms and more.

Rotana Media Group has entered into a partnership with OTT subscription video aggregator Alchimie to launch an Arabic-language SVOD movie channel across Europe. Known as Aflamplus TV, it will be distributed by Alchimie in its European SVOD network, excluding France, and be available on all main digital platforms including the Alchimie-owned TVPlayer for £4.99 a month.

AflamPlus TV will offer a playlist of current and classic Arabic films across different genres. Films will be selected from a library of over 2,000 Arabic films.

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local content production.”

Choueiri Group Chairman and CEO Pierre Choueiri said: “Our partnership will be focused on unlocking the fullest commercial potential of these assets, as highly effective advertising platforms for regional brands. We will also be building upon Zee Entertainment’s existing strengths while adapting to the changing media landscape, to ensure that their TV platforms become the best that they can be.”

Ashok Namboodiri, Chief Business Officer, International Business at Zee, added that this collaboration “will allow us to further increase our investment in the region”.

UAE’s Emaar Entertainment to launch Reel Cinemas in KSA Emaar Entertainment, a subsidiary of UAE developer Emaar Properties, has inked a deal with Saudi Arabia’s Gosi Investment Ventures to expand the Reel Cinemas chain into the Kingdom. The $266m investment will bring cinemas and family entertainment centres to twenty new venues across the Kingdom.

Fatafeat relaunches Genius Kitchen cooking app Fatafeat has relaunched its Arabic cooking course app, Genius Kitchen, into an updated version of the platform – the Fatafeat app. Fatafeat’s live TV feed for the channel will now be available within the Fatafeat app, airing at the same time as on linear TV. Representing a significant shift in consumer access for the brand, this is the first time in its history that the channel has been made available for users in this format.

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PRONEWS

Eagle Films inks $13.3m MENA deal with Lionsgate and STX Eagle Films, one of the major Hollywood distributors in the Arab world, recently signed a $5m deal with Lionsgate, an $8.3m deal with STX and other deals in the European film market, giving it exclusive MENA rights to films including Spiral: New Saw Chapter, Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, The Ice Road, Vanquish, The Comeback Trail and Jolt, all scheduled for first window release as soon as next month. A $7.6m deal signed with Miramax in 2019 will see Eagle Films release Wrath of Man during Eid Al Fitr this year.

The distributor has also secured the MENA rights from Millennium

Season 1 of Turkish drama The Innocents will now be on StarzPlay.

StarzPlay joins forces with Turkish firms StarzPlay has partnered with Mistco and Calinos, a Turkish content distributor, to bring Turkish content for viewers across the MENA region.

It has also tied with BluTV, Turkey’s first and largest local SVOD service, to bring BluTV’s Turkish catalogue as an add-on on the streaming platform.

Media for the fourth sequel in the $400m Has Fallen franchise, Night Has Fallen, which is expected to be completed in 2022. Millennium Media is home to a variety of worldwide box office hit

Shahid VIP to exclusively stream 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix Shahid VIP, MBC Group’s premium SVOD service, has announced that it will stream the 2021 Formula 1 season in full HD. First was the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, held at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola from April 16 to 18. Shahid VIP subscribers were able to watch with English or Arabic commentary, from anywhere and on any device.

12 | www.broadcastprome.com | May 2021

franchises valued at a total of $1.75bn.

Eagle Films CEO Jamal Sannan commented: “During EFM, we acquired the Lionsgate 2022 line-up with a production budget value over $180m.

We also signed an $8.3m deal with STX studio for their upcoming blockbuster movie line-up, which includes a movie directed by Guy Ritchie which is currently in production, and some of the scenes were shot recently in the Middle East. We also acquired the exclusive MENA rights for Miramax’s two upcoming megahit movies – Wrath of Man and another production expected to be completed in 2022.”

Muvi Cinemas to open 307 screens by 2022 Saudi Arabia’s first home-grown cinema chain, Muvi Cinemas, has announced a $218.6m expansion plan for 2021. It intends to grow to 307 screens nationwide over the next 12 months, launching 23 new sites in eight key Saudi regions and adding 204 screens and 22,872 seats to its portfolio. The expansion will bring the brand’s total number of seats to over 35,000. With this, we will see nine new sites in Riyadh, seven in Jeddah and two each in Taif, Alkhobar, Khamis Mushait and Al-Kharj.

SynProNize takes ATV Turkish drama to Pakistan SynProNize, a Dubai-based content distribution and production company led by Nitin Michael and Hasnaa Descuns, has licensed Turkish drama series Hercai from ATV in Turkey to TVOne in Pakistan. With this deal, the series is now available in at least 35 countries.

Hercai is a Turkish story of an impossible love born of vengeance between two families with thousands of years of history.

PRONEWS

Saudi Broadcasting Authority chooses TSL solutions for OB trucks Saudi Broadcasting Authority (SBA) has deployed TSL’s audio monitoring and broadcast control solutions for two of its OB trucks through GENTEC, a local systems integrator (SI) and contractor for telecommunications, electronics and computer projects.

For the first time in Saudi TV history, this OB project was undertaken within the Kingdom rather than being outsourced to EUbased distributors, thereby reducing the project’s cost by 45%. GENTEC provided TSL TM1-MK2+ TallyMan

Inside SBA's OB van.

Advanced Broadcast Control units and AMU1-3G audio monitoring units for each of SBA’s new OB trucks.

The first van needed to be modified, refurbished and redesigned from an old threecamera SD and microwave system to a nine-camera

(wired for 12 cameras) 3G system with super slowmotion capability for sports production. The second van has a five-camera (wired for eight) 3G system, also with slow motion for sports production. Both the TM1MK2+ and AMU1-3G units

were used in the two trucks and, after some configuration and integration of the multiviewers and routers, the vans were ready for use.

Deploying an independent control system allows SBA operators to manage solutions from various manufacturers without limitation, giving them the opportunity to choose best-of-breed products.

TSL’s virtual panels overlay these systems to provide an easy-to-operate visual representation of complex routing systems, signal flows, device control, tallies and technical information displays.

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PRONEWS

Du enhances OTT and DTH with Ateme

UAE telco Du has chosen Ateme’s solutions for its OTT and DTH/IPTV projects.

For its OTT platform, Du has chosen Ateme’s geo-redundant Titan Live encoder for 610 channels in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, as well as Ateme’s Titan File transcoder for offline encoding to offer high video quality to its customers.

Du’s DTH solution ensures high availability and reliability to all Samacom Teleport business customers. Ateme delivered a Titan headend based on Ateme’s Titan Edge

IRD, Titan Live encoder and Statmux, which will provide Du’s DTH platform 28 bouquets based on 220 main channels and 220 back-up channels to better serve its IPTV platform and affiliates. The softwareoriented structure of these projects will allow Du to seamlessly transition to cloudbased models in the future.

By providing a bundled offering, Ateme has helped Du to enjoy significant cost savings on the TCO, while allowing it to scale in the future.

Saleem AlBlooshi, CTO,

Du, said: “Throughout the partnership, we’ve benefited from Ateme’s large local presence, which ensures we have the support to execute these projects successfully.”

Razik Zaghlouli, Regional Sales Director, Ateme, added: “We are pleased to be able to offer continued support to Du as it realises new projects to improve its offering across the UAE. Our disruptive business model is unmatched within the industry and this is a key factor in the success of our partnerships.”

Razik Zaghlouli.

StarzPlay partners with Virgin Mobile in KSA StarzPlay has further strengthened its regional presence through its partnership with Virgin Mobile in Saudi Arabia, to offer StarzPlay services at no additional cost alongside select Virgin Mobile plans. Virgin Mobile KSA users can access StarzPlay’s library of blockbuster content for three months, six months or more, with select Virgin Mobile packages.

Yalla Yalla ropes in Terry George and Mariam Naoum for The Alexandra Killings Toota Toota is the first kids' original from Shahid.

Shahid launches first kids’ original for streaming platform Shahid VIP launched Toota Toota, the very first Shahid kids’ original series, at the beginning of the 2021 Ramadan season. Toota Toota presents a short bedtime story aimed at preschool children. Less than 10 minutes long, each episode is hosted by MBC3 presenter Dania El Shafie. A second season has already been commissioned, with production expected to begin shortly.

Yalla Yalla and Rocket Science have brought together Oscar-winning writer and director Terry George and Egyptian writer Mariam Naoum to co-write serial killer series The Alexandria Killings. The series will be executive produced by Hisham AlGhanim, Nayla Al Khaja (represented

by Adel Nur) and Michela Scolari, represented by Larry Hummel.

The show is the first part of a MENA-based true crime anthology series set in various periods and locations within the Arab world. It will be shot predominantly in Arabic, with English to reflect British rule.

Mariam Naoum (l) and Terry George (r).

May 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 15

PROCOVER

Muay Thai and kickboxing are recent additions to the UAE sports scene, with a great opportunity to attract a younger audience. In an exclusive interview with Vijaya Cherian, Mohamad Yehya, the man tasked with raising the profile of the two sports in the UAE, shares his strategy The UAE hosts a number of major sports events – Formula One, tennis championships, rugby sevens, and golf, football and cricket tournaments – to try to make the small Arab nation a big player on the world map. Now two combat sports have joined this list, thanks to the UAE Muay Thai and Kickboxing Federation (MKFED).

UAE MKFED has worked closely with Mohamad Yehya, a well-connected regional broadcast veteran and founder of IP Studios, a cross-platform media agency in Abu Dhabi that develops, produces and manages a wide range of sports productions, documentary films, short format content, motion graphics animation, and digital and branded entertainment.

The federation approached Yehya in 2019 with an ambitious project to bring muay Thai and kickboxing to Abu Dhabi, with the aim of making the UAE the new home of the two combat sports and creating an entire ecosystem for them to flourish.

“We have a young audience here that doesn’t particularly watch traditional sport,” says the soft-spoken Yehya. “And if you look at all the statistics with regard to sport today, combat sports seem to be getting a lot of eyeballs.”

He takes us through some impressive figures that show how well combat sports are faring in comparison to traditional sport. The WWE in 2019 topped the charts with 14.6bn video views, followed by the NBA and the NFL. Singapore-based ONE Championship had 5.6bn views, with UFC in fifth position with 3.8bn

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video views. Closer to home, the UFC championship in Abu Dhabi during the 2020 pandemic drew 1.3m viewers and made $78m in TV rights revenues.

In Tokyo, a big muay Thai and kickboxing event attracted 85m global viewers in 145 countries. Perhaps the biggest was the Floyd Mayweather versus Conor McGregor fight in 2017, which had a whopping 6.7m payper-view buys generating more than $700m in revenue.

With so many big numbers, Yehya is sure that if they do it right, the UAE can also capitalise on the potential of these two sports. The team has a clear three-step plan.

“Step one was to get to know our audience, and this is where data came in. Step two was to turn our audience into fans, and this is where content creation was critical. To guarantee the sustainability of the growth of your audience, we needed to ensure we could continuously generate good content. The third step was to turn our fans into customers.

The good thing about combat sports is that it has the ability to combine a mix of the actual physical sport and the entertainment element – making it ideal for showbiz.”

Demographics help. The GCC countries have an affluent native population, with a whopping 65% of people below the age of 35 – a generation of cord-nevers that have grown up with smart devices and have a penchant for gaming, combat sports and streaming entertainment.

Well-versed with the whole chain of action required to take a sport from concept to stadium, TV and OTT platforms, Yehya and his team worked in tandem with the UAE MKFED

PROCOVER

Mohamad Yehya has been actively involved in the regional sports media business, promoting everything from falconry and Arabian horse racing to extreme sports and powerboat racing.

May 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 17

PROCOVER

to develop a complete ecosystem, with a regular annual calendar of events to ensure that the right ambience is created to grow new talent, develop existing talent and create a new and growing fan base.

For this, IP Studios collaborates with international partners like the International Federation of Muaythai Associations (IFMA) in Thailand and the World Association of Kickboxing Organizations (WAKO).

The aim is to develop and

“Step one was to get to know our audience … Step two was to turn our audience into fans … The third step was to turn our fans into customers” Mohamad Yehya, Founding Director, IP Studios produce local matches that bring together regional and global fighting talent to provide a great on-site experience for fans, while also developing broadcast media rights opportunities,

Mohamad Yehya (r) in the OB van with Roland Daou (l), Managing Partner of Media Mania, for the coverage of a big muay Thai fight night in Dubai.

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creating a dedicated streaming platform with a growing fan base and launching merchandise to ensure that the brand’s visibility is amplified by fans.

Yehya admits this project is the most ambitious he has ever undertaken and requires the combination of business, technical and strategic skills he has honed over the years in leadership roles at Abu Dhabi Media Company, as GM of Majid Entertainment, and as an active member of the sports media business. He promoted Arabian horse racing for more than a decade in elite circles, including Hollywood, and produced and developed falconry, camel racing and powerboat events, among others.

“My idea was to create a sport as entertainment, and it was inspired by the American way of promoting sports, whether it be the NFL or the NBA. They always add an element of entertainment along with the main sports event itself.

We have tried to do the same and applied it to martial arts. It centres around all aspects of the game, including creating a whole lifestyle around it. We have created our first collection of merchandising and dedicated muay Thai outfits that will go on sale in our retail stores just after Ramadan.”

Yehya has deep insights about the local market, and the backing of the UAE government.

“We have a lot of experience with cultural sports. Most people are focused on sports like football, which already have a wellestablished framework and you have to play by the book. There is very little room for innovation, while in lesser-known sports there is an opportunity to improve on it.”

Yehya has done this before.

While the world chased after thoroughbreds, his company helped launch the Global Arabian Horse Racing Conferences, supported by the His Highness

PROCOVER

The Cruiserweight title fight between Egypt’s Medhat Shehabldin and the UAE’s Ibraheem El Hammadi, part of the February Muaythai Underground Series.

Sheikh Mansoor bin Zayed Al Nahyan Racing Festival.

“We wanted to bring Arabian horses back to the frontlines. We travelled around the world for this, doing conferences in Berlin, Rome, London, Texas and so on, where we educated and informed people about the Arabian horses. Alongside this, we did the actual racing events and also managed and produced three award ceremonies at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, just after the Oscars in Beverly Hills.

By taking it to that level, we were able to put Arabian horse racing back on the map. We broadcast it live through more than 10 TV channels and had big celebrities from Hollywood join us.”

Rather than take traditional Arab sports to the world, however, this time Yehya envisions bringing two international sports to the UAE and engaging the nation’s youth.

“We wanted to make these stories part of the local set-up and align our sports strategy

with the UAE government’s vision, which is quite unique in our region.

Elsewhere, regions undertake such projects purely from a commercial point of view. The UAE wants to invest in its youth. We hosted a couple of big events and included two of the biggest championships in this field.

One was the Asian Cup in Abu Dhabi in December 2019, where 300 athletes came to be a part of this championship.

We also organised the IFMA Muaythai World Championship, with expected

“Most people are focused on sports like football, which already have a wellestablished framework and you have to play by the book.

There is very little room for innovation, while in lesserknown sports there is an opportunity to improve on it” Mohamad Yehya, Founding Director, IP Studios

participation from more than 800 athletes around the world. It was initially meant to happen in June 2020, but with Covid it has been postponed to later this year.”

One of the first things IP Studios did as part of this project was to create a commercial arm for the local federation.

“A commercial arm is more flexible in connecting and communicating with different parties and helps to collaborate with international parties. This is how we created the United Arab Muaythai (UAM) youth academy as part of the UAM brand, which also has a commercial/retail unit and an athletes’ management arm.

Through this, we approach talent to come and sign up with us. It is in charge of creating championships and monetising the content and creating different revenue streams.

It covers everything related to the legal and commercial aspects of the business. We as a company are in charge of managing this entity

May 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 19

PROCOVER

HE Abdulla Al Neyadi, President of UAE MKFED, with Yehya, who was honoured

by Dr Sakchye Tapsuwan (r), President of the IFMA, for successfully hosting the Asian Championship in the UAE.

and creating the right image for these two sports in the region.”

Data is also an important aspect.

According to Yehya, the formula for creating a successful project depends on a “combination of market data, content availability and striking the right partnerships” because it helps “grow the audience and move them to being fans and consumers”.

“Getting to know your audience and understanding who is interested in the game was hugely important for us from the start. We began by creating amateur championships.

There are several training institutes and gyms involved in presenting these sports. So we got them to join us and bring along some of their top players. The local schools also have their own kickboxing teams.

“Our first couple of amateur events for the kids were so good. Our junior championships for 11- to 15-year-olds also got a tremendous response. Most would come with their families and friends, and it became a fun event. Interestingly, combat games instil a huge sense of discipline in young people and bring about

a major personality change, so a lot of parents found this channelled their children’s energy in a positive direction.”

During three days of around 200 amateur and youth fights, there were also

“My idea was to create a sport as entertainment, and it was inspired by the American way of promoting sports . . .

They always add an element of entertainment along with the main sports event itself” Mohamad Yehya, Founding Director, IP Studios

A photo opportunity with the referees of the big fights.

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10 to 12 rounds with professionals.

“We had fighters joining us from different parts of Europe, Asia and other countries in the region.

They were either fighting for a belt or for the main trophy.”

The team had a clear strategy in place, with specific timelines to hit each milestone. Creating an annual calendar was an important element of this strategy.

“To be part of a broadcast setup, we had to build our calendar to ensure we had enough events and fights. Once you create any championship, you have to build the momentum. We started

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PROCOVER

Mohamad Yehya with Tareq Al Muhairy (r), Executive Director of the UAE MKFED, official patron of muay Thai and kickboxing in the UAE.

creating the calendar, and then we reached a point where we had a good number. With professional championships, it was not just about bringing the audiences … it was also about bringing the whole package,” explains Yehya, adding that Covid has caused disruption.

But the team didn’t just rely on the actual fights. IP Studios used its production expertise to create additional content like training videos on how to be a muay Thai or kickboxing athlete.

“This formula brought in more audiences and they become fans very quickly,” explains Yehya.

In parallel, Yehya’s team also worked to create stars.

“To create loyal fans, you need to give them proper heroes and create a fan base. This is what we worked on. We produced our first Arabiclanguage documentary on the ‘Tiger of the Ring’. It centres around one of the champions of the sport from the UAE who won the Intercontinental belt in the last event we did. It was so inspirational; we did a screening at the Emirates Palace auditorium.

The main purpose was to highlight the work that goes into supporting the sports and to help the heroes.”

“Sports now is about creating experiences and promoting a certain lifestyle. We have created a fashion line with some international designers.

Our retail store will open just after Ramadan at Khalidiya Mall in Abu Dhabi; we will have a retail outlet in Dubai also” Mohamad Yehya, Founding Director, IP Studios

The K-1 Combat in Dubai for the WAKO Pro Intercontinental Light Heavyweight title between the UAE's Ilyass Habibali and Ireland's Damian Darker.

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Then came monetisation.

The team initially worked with local sports channels, but Yehya eventually decided he wanted to monetise these events properly.

They stopped airing FTA and created their own platform.

“Our vision was to reach our audiences directly and have greater control over our data, and we couldn’t do that with FTA. So we created our own streaming platform. UAMpro is now available on the App Store, and at present we have around 13,000 downloads in just this market.

“This was the best decision we made. We worked with service providers in the region to create this platform, which is in both Arabic and English. We post a lot of content out there, including fights, training videos, VOD content, reviews and so on.

We started with the free model and hoped to move to an SVOD model once we had the numbers.

We even had a rich calendar, with some events being hosted outside the UAE in Amsterdam, Vegas, London, Thailand and Brazil. Sadly, Covid brought these plans to a temporary halt.”

Not one to give up, Yehya immediately brought forward plans to create a retail concept store, working with international designers.

“Sports now is about creating experiences and promoting a certain lifestyle. We have created a fashion line with some international designers. Our retail store will open just after Ramadan at Khalidiya Mall in Abu Dhabi; we will have one retail outlet in Dubai also. If you look at the numbers, you can see sportswear designed specifically for different sports. We are focused on the lifestyle part of this sport as well, and Covid-19 gave this a big push. That’s our strategy.”

But will that be enough?

PROCOVER

Face-off for the K1 Royal Battle at the Emirates Palace Abu Dhabi.

Yehya says the next big thing in sport seems to be betting. “Fans don’t just want to watch a game anymore. Engagement is critical.

Sports betting would support the industry if it was brought in a legal manner and if it was in compliance with Shariah law.”

“With professional championships, it was not just about bringing the audiences … it was also about bringing the whole package” Mohamad Yehya, Founding Director, IP Studios

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Yehya echoes the findings of a 2020 PwC sports survey.

According to the report, betting and fantasy are predicted to become key industry drivers for the sports business in the next three to five years, with an anticipated yearly growth of 7.2%.

In the meantime, IP Studios has also finalised its first cartoon feature – the story of Shehab, a human kid and robot mix who uses the secrets of muay Thai that his coach shares with him to fight off robots. Yehya reckons it will be ready for release in time for the spring break.

Not to leave any stone unturned, the team is also exploring the potential of offering fans an Oculus VR experience on the streaming platform. And there’s more to come, says Yehya, with a mysterious smile.

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PROTECH

MAXIMISING THE POTENTIAL OF AR AND VR TECHNOLOGY FOR LIVE SPORTS

As augmented reality and virtual reality gain more respect in the sports realm, there are some issues to iron out, says Thierry Fautier Over the last few years, broadcasters have been searching for ways to deliver more immersive video experiences – and AR and VR seem to be the answer. Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies have emerged as effective methods to address the need for a more immersive video experience, especially for premium sports events. However, a few challenges must be overcome before widespread deployment can occur.

The first issue with using VR/AR for live sports is the complexity of the workflow. VR production is migrating from 4K to 8K, which requires ensuring 8Kp60 content is delivered with pristine live stitching quality. The industry is nearly there, but there is a high price tag associated with delivering high quality. In addition, equipment size may be a concern for in-stadium and mobile use cases. The alternative is to rely on an all-in-one solution where capture and stitching is done in a single device, which can affect quality.

Another challenge for VR is consumer adoption. The first wave of devices, such as Gear VR and Oculus QUEST, offer limited resolution. Newer head-mounted displays (HMDs), such as the Qualcomm XR2, Oculus Quest 2 and Skyworth 901, offer a higher display resolution. As depicted in Table1, there’s been a drastic improvement in quality of experience (QoE), especially for 8K content that can be natively decoded on those devices.

For in-stadium applications, there’s an expectation for low latency between the camera capture and the rendered VR content on the mobile device. Latency can be reduced if video processing is done locally in the stadium with an MEC type of architecture, compared to the public cloud.

However, the biggest contributor is the protocol used.

It’s important to use low-latency protocols to deliver content.

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There are two options. One is to use WebRTC as the distribution scheme, which results in sub-second latency. The second is to use CMAF low latency with either DASH or HLS manifest formats. This provides latency in the same range as for broadcast (around five seconds). The problem with deployed systems is the increased processing complexity.

Viewport-dependent devices create long delays that prevent an in-stadium experience, compared with viewport-independent solutions that support existing OTT low-latency solutions.

On the bright side, we’re starting to see HMDs with 8K decoding capability and good display performance at a reasonable price, as well as new 5G phones that support 8K decoding.

Evolution of VR VR processing can be split into two approaches. The first is viewport-dependent, where only the area corresponding to the device’s field of view is sent on the network. The main benefit of this approach is reduced bandwidth; the downside is latency. Each time the user refreshes or moves their head, a portion of the scene is not transmitted. This approach is standardised by MPEG in OMAF v2.0.

The second is viewport-independent, where the full sphere is sent to the device. This approach increases the bitrate but offers the advantage of supporting all devices without requiring any adaptation relying on standard-based OTT protocols. This approach for 4K was standardised in OMAF v1 and has been recommended by the VR Industry Forum in its Guidelines for 8K. There are plans to standardise this approach in the future OMAF version for 8K. Table 2 summarises the differences between the two approaches.

One of the key attributes of a viewport-independent solution

PROTECH

Table 1: Improvement in quality of experience Skyworth 901

Qualcomm XR2

Oculus Quest2

Status

Commercial

Shipping to ISV

Shipping

FOV

105

110

110

Resolution

3840x2160

3840x2160

3664x1920

Frame Rate

Up to 120

90

72 (90)

Chipset

Exynos 8895

SDM 865

SDM 865

Weight

320g

NA

503g

Controller

6DoF

6DoF

6DoF

Video

8Kp30

8Kp60

8Kp60

Price

$400

NA

$300

Table 2: Differences between standards 8K Viewport independent

4K Viewport dependent

Standard based

Yes (DASH) OMAF 2.x (2021)

OMAF v1.0 (now) / OMAF v2.0 (July 2020)

Network adaption

ABR

Base and enhancement layer

Quality

No lag in any network conditions Reduced resolution on 4G

Lag in challenged network conditions No good 4G support (no ABR)

Decoder performance

Need 8K decoder

Need -2 x 4K decoder

Decoder base

S10/20 Skyworth v901 XR2 Quest 2 5G smartphone

All 4K HMDs/smartphones

End-to-end latency

5s (using CMAF)

>30s

CDN independence

Yes

No (integration needed)

Integration into existing OTT workflow

Yes

No

Support of DRM, DAI, CENC, DRM

Natively

Integration needed

Bandwidth needed (8K content)

-30 Mbps

-20 Mbps

Table 3: Operators and ecosystems implemented Operator

Year

Content

Technology

Ecosystem

NBA

2017

Basketball

Viewport independent 4K

Next VR

PCCW

2017

Music, Sports

Viewport independent 4K

Nokia-Harmonic

LGU+

2019

Baseball

Viewport independent 8K

LGU+

DT

2019

Basketball

Viewport dependent 4K

Iconic engine

PCCW

2020

Soccer

Viewport dependent 4K

Iconic engine

Sky

2020

Soccer

Viewport dependent 4K

Livelike

BT

2020

Soccer

Viewport dependent 4K

Deltatre

is seamless integration in an existing OTT workflow. Operators that want to use low latency, DRM or digital ad insertion systems can support them right out of the gate, without lengthy developments or integration. Another benefit is that any native 8K player can decode the stream, including all new HMDs and 5G smartphones released since 2020. In addition, due to an ABR mechanism, backward compatibility is guaranteed with legacy 4K devices.

In order to support highbandwidth applications, adequate network infrastructure is needed.

At home, a fibre or DOCSIS 3.1 network that offers up to 1Gbps connectivity is ideal. For mobile, a high-capacity network is required – 5G is the perfect fit, with bandwidth ranging from 100Mbps to Gbps, depending on the spectrum used.

One of the myths of VR is that a 5G low-latency network is needed, to avoid motion sickness. This is inaccurate, as the motion-to-photon delay is coming from the application.

In the viewport-independent architecture, if the tiles are not arriving on time, a lower-resolution backup background is provided to users during a few of the frames.

In a viewport-dependent approach, the content is entirely available to users. Therefore, there is a perceived delay when users move their head.

Current state of AR Today, AR is mostly used to overlay graphical information in real time on top of the video watched by users.

Soon, the volumetric capture of moving objects within video will be displayed in an overlay watched on smartphones or HMDs. MPEG is very active in the volumetric capture of video and its rendering on consumer devices, with two standards: V-PCC (Video Point Cloud) and MIV (Metadata Immersive Video).

A key element of a consumer AR experience is the use of a smartphone to create an overlay, or a HMD that connects to the end user’s

May 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 25

PROTECH

mobile device to create an overlay layer on top of the video played by the mobile device. Expect to see volumetric video applications in the future. The industry is waiting for Apple to work on an XR HMD that will support both AR and VR. What’s next?

On the VR front, the aggregation of different features – 8K video, multiview, Watch Together, social media – will become the norm. Those technologies are maturing and there will be more commercial deployments on HMDs and 5G smartphones in the coming years. Viewport-dependent technology will be completely integrated into the OTT workflow.

AR is evolving with more video, including V-PCC and MIVS not only being file-based for VOD consumption, but also supporting live for events where a well-known athlete or musical

“Beyond VR and AR, the next generation of immersive experiences will involve integrating capabilities such as Watch Together, allowing viewers to watch live sports with friends and chat in a splitscreen view during the event”

Forum will play an important role in moving the industry forward.

Beyond VR and AR, the next generation of immersive experiences will involve integrating capabilities such as Watch Together, allowing viewers to watch live sports with friends and chat in a split-screen view during the event.

Thierry Fautier, VP of Video Strategy, Harmonic artist is represented like a hologram in front of millions of people. Intel and Canon are pioneering a free-viewport technology, with interesting preliminary results.

We’re only at the tip of the immersive experience iceberg. In a few years, we might be able to watch a live sports event from any angle we choose. Organisations such as MPEG and the VR Industry

Thierry Fautier is Vice President of Video Strategy at Harmonic.

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PROPRODUCTION

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PROPRODUCTION

GAME ON!

BroadcastPro Middle East's inaugural virtual sports broadcasting conference explored how the arrival of OTT and the more recent Covid-19 lockdown have impacted sport and disrupted traditional methods of production, rights distribution and monetisation. The first panel particularly explored the impact on live sport and new measures by stakeholders to keep the game going When Covid struck, sport was one of the most affected verticals both globally and regionally. It compelled broadcasters, sports organisations and everyone in the chain to think creatively and come up with solutions that would enable them to keep fans engaged and address how to conduct and produce sport in these times.

Joining the panel were Ammar Hina, Broadcast Director at the UAE Pro League; Charles Balchin, Head of Projects at IMG; and Ophir Zardok, Strategy Director at LiveU. Well-known TV anchor Joe Morrison moderated.

With most sports events having come to a standstill, Morrison questioned how the sports community was coping and what it had in store.

Hina commented that while “it was the toughest period” with “no matches and no output leading to no content at all”, the team tried an all-digital strategy with heavy reliance on stories from the pitch. The absence of fans in the stadium, however, has only been physical. With the use of fancams and virtual audio cheering, producers have been striving to retain the spirit of the game and keep it as close to the live action as possible.

Zardok from LiveU remarked that the situation has led to an “acceleration in innovation adoption”.

“More broadcasters who were not willing to adopt new technologies earlier have started to do so now. As a technology provider, we help sports broadcasters, sports organisations and production companies reduce their production cost, and we saw a huge growth here. We helped a lot of sports organisations to gather funds closer to the action and to optimise their production flows.”

Balchin said the lockdown initially caught the IMG team off guard. “One day, we had around 500 people at our Stockley Park office in London – which has five studios and 70 edit suites. The next day, they weren’t allowed to go there.”

He agreed with Zardok that the situation has brought some positive changes in the broadcast workplace. “What has been extraordinary is that it sped things up that were going to happen

anyway,” he said, adding that it had also encouraged greater synergies between the “editorial guys and the tech guys”.

“Earlier, we operated in silos. That changed overnight.

Suddenly the production guys had to be hand-in-hand with people and we had to learn a whole other language which we never understood in our lives and never wanted to. It became much less of a ‘them and us’ situation.”

The UAE Pro League opted for on-site commentary rather than remote alternatives, even at the peak of the pandemic, but Hina said the league has been mandated to move to remote options for the coming seasons. “We stuck to on-site commentary for cultural reasons. People like to hear the commentary live from the field. At the same time, we had challenges regarding the communication.”

Commentators therefore were in the stadiums to view the matches live and “reflect the best output”, rather than undertaking a virtual relay of the pitch happenings.

Several other new practices were also inculcated during the pandemic, with some likely to be retained even after things go back to the old normal. The Pro League, for instance, has started using AR elements in its productions, adding crowd cheering sounds sourced from previous matches and making output bilingual (Arabic and English) to maximise exposure.

Asked if LiveU had any spectacular experiences, given its representation in 130 countries, Zardok remarked that its experience with Tencent Sports had been “outstanding”.

“We learned a lot from them; in fact, we took their production set-up and copied it in other places. For example, when they wanted to do the ice skating championship, they used LiveU equipment for remote production, because when you do production on-site, you want to minimise the number of people on-site for safety reasons. You don’t want to pre-cable the entire venue and don’t want a lot of people there; you have to be creative. They came in with just a cameraman and a mic set up in certain locations, and did a lot of productions with us starting January 2020.”

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PROPRODUCTION

“Our strategy for the next few years is to develop local talent, because our aim is to eventually have this organisation run entirely

by UAE nationals” Ammar Hina, Broadcast Director, UAE Pro League Zardok said LiveU also intends to fortify its presence in the region and expand its expertise here, thanks to the recent Arab-Israeli pact. “We are investing to develop our presence in the region. We actually brought a new person onboard who is based in the UAE. His main goal is to develop our presence there and try to assist the local leagues, associations, federations and production companies.”

Moving on to regional specifics, Morrison asked Balchin’s opinion on how the Middle East is evolving with regard to sport, and IMG’s specific role and challenges as it takes on massive productions in the region.

“We have long seen this area as ripe for development, and with the Saudi Cup, the golf, the tennis … all coming up … there’s a lot happening and so many areas that have the potential

to be developed. We have half a dozen events going on here, but are not sure if that is enough just yet to open an office here. But we are right at the cusp of putting our feet firmly into the Middle East. We use the services of a company in Dubai currently, so do we then break out and create our own? That’s what we are exploring at the moment.”

Zardok agreed that with the number of international events in the region going up in recent years, “the local sports scene is quite attractive for vendors”. He added that being associated with MENA-origin production companies ensured greater exposure and allowed technology providers such as LiveU to “penetrate certain markets with this kind of partnership.”

One big challenge discussed in particular detail was the paucity of local talent in Arab countries. The UAE seems to have done much better than some of its GCC counterparts, and Hina said the Pro League is continuously working to engage more with local talent. “Our strategy for the next few years is to develop local talent, because our aim is to eventually have this organisation run entirely by UAE nationals.”

Balchin said the situation is far more challenging in Saudi Arabia.

“One of the problems we find with some local populations is them saying, ‘We get paid to turn up and press this button, and that’s what we will do. If you want us to learn how to press that other button as well’ – which by the way will make you a better operator than the programmer – ‘then you have got to pay us a lot more.’ That’s the problem we have at the moment. So, to be brutally honest, it’s a challenge.”

He added that his team, as a result, has been unable to find an Arabic-speaking producer. “I am not swamped with applications. I am trying to find someone that can speak and write Arabic, is comfortable doing live television, knows what a running order is and knows what a health and safety certificate is. Just finding those people that tick those basic TV production boxes is the challenge.”

Zardok commented that LiveU often

30 | www.broadcastprome.com | May 2021

works with local partners and trains them. “Around the world, we have local partners and we normally train them and work closely with them to ensure they know how to maximise the potential of our equipment.

We train, teach and transfer knowledge to the local production people, whether a cameraman, manager or anyone else who might want to use the LiveU equipment.

Normally, we work on-site with people to make it most effective.”

Hina said the Pro League follows a similar training pattern. “As part of the seasonal plan, we have training sessions all the time. We conduct workshops for commentators, for example, just to make sure that we have a clear output. We have training sessions for the broadcast managers

“I think both the stadium experience and the television experience will change dramatically.

What that does to the viewing figures, we’ll have to wait and see” Charles Balchin, Head of Projects, IMG

PROPRODUCTION

“We have dedicated applications for LiveU and iOS, where you can capture the footage and make every fan a reporter from the field” Ophir Zardok, Strategy Director, LiveU on the field. No less than 20-30 training sessions take place every year. It is part of our plan to make sure that we rope in local talent.”

Balchin agreed that production and professional standards in the UAE have improved significantly, but said this is not applicable to the rest of the region.

“We cannot call MENA one region, in my opinion, under those headings. It does not help, for instance, to have presenters and guests arrive only 10 minutes before a programme. Then how can my producer talk to them about ‘this is what I want you to chat about, this is what I need here, this is what I need there’. A lot of sports, like say Formula One and boxing … do not belong natively to those countries.

They bring in the Westerners to make it look great. When Sky did

the boxing, there wasn’t a single Saudi cameraman in the 32-camera crew. So, in some regions things have improved, yes, but in other regions they’ve got quite a long way to go. Let’s not think that the Qatar FA has got that many Qataris in it, because it hasn’t.”

Morrison said that in the past, it was customary for international players and referees to travel to European countries to enhance their abilities and “be surrounded by a culture of performance”. He asked the panellists about arranging something similar for production staff. Zardok stepped in to say that LiveU prefers “coming to our clients and training them on-site”.

The prognosis for the future of sports broadcast in the region was mixed.

Zardok said LiveU expects to see “bigger representation in the region and hopes to support the local broadcast industry, with local people”. He also saw more people involved in generating content.

“We have dedicated applications for LiveU and iOS, where you can capture the footage and make every fan a reporter from the field. You can take the footage and transmit it over 4G or 5G with the core technology of LiveU, which is the bonded cellular solution.

It’s definitely about the technology and how you do the transmission. There are a lot of tools to do it. Even with 4G, you can get really good bandwidth to transmit a good, high-quality video.”

For Balchin, the situation circled back to professionalism – taking help from international entities, in his opinion, is not a permanent solution.

“I think it comes back to the people.

If we can find enough good local people, the future will be very bright.

What I don’t think will work is IMG UK arriving en masse to do things.”

Hina predicts more personalised experiences in the future, with gaming playing a big role.

“If you think about how it’s going to look, it should be a more personalised experience for each fan. Instead of having one experience for all, where everyone watches the same football – it’s not going to be like this. E-gaming is

giving us indications that it should be more personalised. Just as I choose my player and game, this is how it should be. It should be more tailored for the fans, I believe.”

Though e-gaming is likely to become an integral part of fan engagement, he concluded that he does not see it overtaking the actual game.

“I believe they are two parallel projects, but they don’t have the same output. The fans are not the same either. There might be someone who never enjoyed playing the game, but they might be a gaming geek.”

To conclude, all the panellists agreed that whether it is the stadium experience or the television experience, so many new toys are coming our way.

“During this Covid time, some people have learnt a new language, some have written a new novel, some have got fit. I’ve tried to learn about all the new technical stuff that’s coming our way, because that’s not my natural area, and my mind is blown. I think both the stadium experience and the television experience will change dramatically. What that does to the viewing figures, we’ll have to wait and see,” concluded Balchin.

Joe Morrison is a well-known TV anchor based in Dubai.

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PROSOCIAL MEDIA

UNLOCKING THE POTENTIAL OF SOCIAL

Social media platforms play a big role in the sports ecosystem, helping rights owners to increase audiences through fan engagement and extending the traditional narrative. This panel at the Future of Sports Broadcasting Summit examined social media’s influence in bringing more fans into the sports circle With social media creating extended opportunities for it is in health and fitness, football or basketball”. sports rights holders to engage fans, we had David Ibrahim pointed out that Twitter sees itself as a Dellea, Head of Sports Business Advisory at PwC, complement to rights holders, offering partners “an moderate this discussion on its potential. The panel incremental audience” and creating “fan engagement”. consisted of Kinda Ibrahim, Director of Global Content She defined Twitter as “the world’s largest couch, Partnerships (News, Sports & Entertainment), MEA where fans flock together to watch, converse and cheer and Turkey, Twitter; Rami M. Zeidan, Head of Video and for their favourite teams, leagues and athletes”.

Creative at TikTok; and Rosemarie “This was intensified during the Saad, Branded Content Sales pandemic, where stadiums had no Director at Saudi Media Company. audience. Players were playing without The discussion looked at how social audience, so rights holders were relying media platforms help extend the on social media to extend that fan narratives differently for commercial engagement. We saw a massive surge partners, the roles they play, and in user growth last year – over 27% how they help drive subscriptions in monetisable daily active users and or engagement. Dellea explored the over 34% growth in video watch-time, overarching role of social media within to reach over 3.5bn views daily.” the larger media ecosystem and asked To Dellea’s follow-up question on how where it fits – as primary screen, Twitter works with rights owners to drive secondary screen or complementary. more business, Ibrahim explained how Zeidan commented that TikTok serves it worked with Saudi Media Company. as an independent screen where the “We worked with the Saudi Pro League, team witnesses an “amazing onboarding which is massive on Twitter. Near-live of lots of big clubs, federations, players short clips were published through our and much more that has allowed us to portals in almost real time; so as the David Dellea, Head of Sports build an ecosystem where sports has match was happening, the publisher Business Advisory at PwC. its own ongoing narrative, whether published their best clips from the match

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PROSOCIAL MEDIA

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PROSOCIAL MEDIA

“We saw a massive surge in user growth last year – over 27% in monetisable daily active users and over 34% growth in video watch-time, to reach over 3.5bn views daily” Kinda Ibrahim, Director of Global Content Partnerships, MEA and Turkey, Twitter in real time. Last year alone, we had over 91m tweets around it.

Basically, they were simulcasting on Twitter so it was on TV but also on Twitter in terms of live matches. We also partnered with BeIn Sports to drive subscription.”

As a broadcast network, Rosemarie Saad explained that for the Saudi Pro League, “Communication went out through multiple touch points and multiple channels, especially Twitter. The engagement is great because from a commercial standpoint, we see year after year the same TV-sponsoring brands crosspromoting the same content on social media, especially on Twitter in Saudi Arabia. I think the aim of

having multiple channels broadcast football content derived from the main game will help leverage each other’s audiences and extend that reach.”

What TikTok has done phenomenally well, according to Zeidan, is “create an active community of broadcasters, clubs and celebrity players, professional players, and then the long tail of creators who are online”.

“Today, if you look at the current sports properties, they live separately on different channels. You put all of that together in one place and you have TikTok. The football clubs are all onboarded on TikTok. The global players, the influencers and anyone with a passion for sports found a place on TikTok to communicate their passion. All of a sudden, everything converges on TikTok. During Covid, we did a massive football freestyling challenge that allowed people to just keep moving.

“What that does, to publishers and brands in particular, is they allow themselves to play around with the sports narrative, to speak to the sports fan, so they are able to tap into different dimensions of the sport. And it also gives everyone a chance to have an ongoing communication or an ongoing flow of content throughout the year.”

Dellea asked Saad if there was a fear of too much dependence on social media as a gateway to content. She brushed off these concerns, saying that “Saudi fans are super expressive” and social media enables them to boldly express their sentiments, especially with no stadium experience to offer.

The panellists agreed that rights owners come to their platforms to achieve something specific.

Zeidan cited the case of Al Hilal Club from the Saudi Pro League, and said social media gives greater access for different brands to come together.

“This means I can see my favourite player doing TikToks. I can see how they are enjoying and participating

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in challenges, and I can also participate with them. Al Hilal Club from Saudi Pro League had 150,000 followers within the first ten days of joining TikTok. Their hashtag now has over a billion views, so there is a lot of fan connection because we are extending the conversation.”

He called this “an extension of the narrative”.

“We keep focusing on the full picture. How can we build real-time access to what’s happening, how can we build a connection with the brand – i.e., the player and the club – and how can we really nurture

“How can we increase the equity of our local ecosystem, our local players and our local commentators? In that narrative, building a full ecosystem in its full dimensions of global, local, small and big – that is what we are trying to do” Rami M. Zeidan, Head of Video and Creative, TikTok

PROSOCIAL MEDIA

the community? Today, we focus a lot on the underground clubs that are not known, because there is a lot of affinity to global platforms like the English Premier League, compared to local platforms. How can we increase the equity of our local ecosystem, our local players and our local commentators?

In that narrative, building a full ecosystem in its full dimensions of global, local, small and big – that is what we are trying to do.”

Dellea asked if consumers suffer from an overload of content as a result.

Saad remarked that the same game on different platforms appeals in different forms to different users, and so that is not a concern. Ibrahim added that it’s not just about churning out a lot of content, but about “timing, the frequency, the quality and the type of content”.

“You want to make sure you are not just sharing clippings and postings on social media, but catering to that type of platform.

So polls, voting, a conversational card, anything that helps you keep the fan engagement going on that platform is very important.”

Zeidan added that we are still only at the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how much sports content is available online.

Asked how social media platforms see themselves evolving differently from mainstream media, Ibrahim maintained that Twitter’s execution has always been different.

“We live streamed the first 45 minutes of golf matches in a PGA tour, for example, and if anybody wanted to see the rest of the match, they could subscribe and watch it at the platform of the rights owner. That is what we are going to continue to do. The execution and the format will be different. The aim is to have it sustainable and longterm and to build this consumer habit, and build a sustainable

“I think the aim of having multiple channels broadcast football content derived from the main game will help leverage each other’s audiences and extend that reach” Rosemarie Saad, Branded Content Sales Director, Saudi Media Company relationship with the rights owner.”

Zeidan maintained that new opportunities will unfold for the rights holder to expand the narrative.

“The expansion of the narrative then starts playing on ‘here’s our biggest property, our biggest bet, but you know what, here’s our seven to eight other properties as well that we need support to build’. And we start having this conversation under the umbrella of partnerships, rather than that of buying and selling.”

The panel concluded with Saad saying that broadcasters and rights owners see great benefits in working closely “with social media and adjacent platforms to provide users with almost real-time content that is right on TV”.

“The monetisation opportunities

are endless here when it comes to identifying the routes for brands to leverage from sponsoring content or creating online activity, competitions around some games or promotions and so on. In the region, we still have great room for development when it comes to transforming the industry’s data into actual revenue.

“So today, thanks to technology, sports entities can acquire centralised systems that can connect to different existing systems or different existing touch points such as merchandising, ticketing, loyalty programming software and so on. The better these industries and entities can combine those and create actual profiles of these fans, the better the brands will be able to leverage. I believe the more you know your fans, the better you can personalise the messages and create relevant content, so they can then turn into customers.”

Ibrahim stated that rights holders should look at the benefits of “keeping the content on their own platform, versus where the audience actually is, versus what the audience wants to consume …

Massive growth cannot come from just existing on one platform. It has to exist on multiple platforms.

It is about devising strategies about how you can exist on them and what they can provide.”

The panel also discussed the younger generation’s greater propensity for e-gaming and esports, and how media houses use these platforms to engage with and access them. “That these e-games are derived from the real game and players is a good touch point to communicate with them,” said Saad.

With new realities continuously emerging, the panellists felt that social media platforms would be able to capitalise on the current sports scenario and use it to drive subscriptions for sports rights holders.

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PROSPORT

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PROSPORT

MONETISING SPORTS THOROUGHLY AND INNOVATIVELY Rights, monetisation, distribution deals, fan engagement and piracy are some of the most critical discussions around sport today.

Industry experts navigated them within a MENA context at the Future of Sports Broadcasting Summit. We bring you the details

Day two of the Future of Sports Broadcasting Summit 2021 this is a big problem – when searching for specific brought together some key stakeholders in sports and content on Google, seven to eight pirate sites also come broadcast for a panel discussion on Broadcasting Sports – up. Asked about password sharing as a subset of piracy, Who wins and where’s the money? Covering topics ranging he called it the lesser of two evils, saying that at least from content rights and monetisation to fan engagement, someone is paying for that subscription and acquiring piracy and emerging business models, the panel was viewing rights fairly, in comparison to services like moderated by Carl von Doussa, Managing Director of Popcorn Time, which are easily accessible in the region Venture Sports Media, and brought together Danny Bates, and provide free pirated content on a large scale.

COO and co-founder of StarzPlay; Sunil Manoharan, Vice Sunil Manoharan added that the lack of easy access President Media Rights, International Cricket Council to good content also often leads to piracy. “I live in (ICC); Simon Brydon, Senior Director, Dubai. You would expect that I should Sports Rights Anti-Piracy, Synamedia be able to watch cricket very easily.

Committee; and Steve F. D. Bainbridge, In this day and age, in my home, I Partner, Head of Sports Law & Events can’t watch cricket on a big screen; Management, Al Tamimi Company.

I have to watch it on my mobile.”

Carl von Doussa kicked off the He gave credit to the local telecom for discussion with a brief overview of buying rights and providing content on media and telco market growth in the mobile devices, but since this pertains MENA region. According to Venture to the UAE exclusively, it creates the Sports Media’s analysis, as of 2020, problem of ease of access for consumers digital advertising is among the fastest in other parts of the region. “For example, growing segments in this region. However, the ICC T20 World Cup that will happen in significantly greater annual revenues October, nobody knows where to watch it. derive from mobile carriers ($13.2bn) and So it becomes a big problem for everyone.” gaming ($5.4bn). Revenue from gaming He pointed out that this does however alone exceeds the combined revenue of create the opportunity for a new service FTA, pay TV, OTT, digital and radio. to aggregate content in one place and He steered the conversation towards make it more widely available. “There’s a Carl von Doussa is Managing the loss of revenue caused by piracy. great opportunity here for a broadcaster Director of Venture Sports Media.

StarzPlay’s Danny Bates agreed that or OTT platform to come in and acquire

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PROSTRATEGY

“The rights holders need to enter into the risk with partners in the region, to give them that ability to distribute and to grow” Danny Bates, COO, StarzPlay all the cricket rights. If you combine that with a trend of lowering data prices, it could be a winwin situation for everyone.”

He presented the success story of his home country India, where Reliance’s network Jio has profitably provided low-cost data access in even the most remote areas.

“They offer the lowest data prices anywhere in the world. So if you have a mobile phone, you can watch cricket on your mobile phone and it’s really affordable. Doesn’t matter if you have a pay-TV connection or not. I think that is a formula which other countries can also apply.”

Sports law veteran Steve Bainbridge commented that although the law has taken action against offenders, “It is a multijurisdictional problem. The core of the problem is that we have a very broad spectrum of potential

abusers. They are people who would not normally consider themselves people who would step over the line.

They often are people who pay for content where it’s available. They would pay for content if it were legally available at a reasonable price. We have a multitude of potential rule breakers.”

He noted that although OTT platforms show promise in terms of protecting content against piracy through digital security as well as lower prices, one cannot be equally optimistic about traditional broadcast platforms. “Even if one jurisdiction accomplishes one victory in cutting back on piracy, they can often disband and set up somewhere else.”

Synamedia’s Simon Brydon focused the exchange with an estimate of the cost of piracy in the region: “In MENA, $3.25bn is the loss of potential revenue in sports only to broadcasters, TV operators and others.”

In a Synamedia-commissioned study conducted by Ampere Analysis, it was found that many viewers that used pirate sites would be willing to pay for content if it were legally available.

Brydon pointed out that access to legal OTT services, access on a device and territory-wise access were some of the crucial considerations in tackling piracy and providing a “provable return on investment” to rights owners.

While there seemed to be a consensus that the rights owner generates the content at great cost, Bates commented that collaborations are key to moving forward. “The rights holders need to enter into the risk with partners in the region, to give them that ability to distribute and to grow.”

He also noted that all parties may want to look at how “distribution deals will be structured in the future” and, with that element of shared risk, give players a chance to build the distribution model over time.

“I think that can also help with the growth in the region with paid services. Having an element of shared risk along with an element of shared growth would give players much more

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ability to execute and do the things that we are talking about – bring the features, the price and the distribution on one service. But the industry must come together a bit to make that happen.”

Since higher revenues for distributors eventually mean higher revenues for rights holders, Brydon conceded that there is space for more collaboration in the industry.

However, he cautioned against revenue-share deals, as they imply “sharing x% of very little” in favour of the distributors – rights owners “still need those guaranteed level of fees, and any variation should be at the other end of the spectrum”.

Von Doussa then moved on, asking if federations should jump directly to consumers (D2C).

Bates said that although this may be common in the US and Europe, in areas like MENA it could prove

“In MENA, $3.25bn is the loss of potential revenue in sports only to broadcasters, TV operators and others” Simon Brydon, Senior Director, Sports Rights Anti-Piracy, Synamedia Committee

PROSTRATEGY

The complications arising from rights deals have forced consumers in some countries to watch their favourite sport on their mobile devices.

challenging “without a distributor”.

Bainbridge agreed: “In most areas, we are moving towards specialisation. Federations and rights holders have enough of their own problems to deal with. So we are looking at governance issues and managing their core business. The resources that are taken away from that to properly manage and move forward with these businesses, which are highly specialist, can sometimes be detrimental.”

Brydon endorsed this view. “I think federations and rights holders go D2C firstly out of a position of great strength in a certain market such as MLB, NBA, NSL. Or they go D2C out of a position of weakness, where they cannot secure broadcast contracts.”

“If you are able to, the best route is to secure specialist local broadcasters who can then best serve their local audience and deliver your content to the maximum financial benefit. Yes, some people can do a combined model of both, like the NBA League Pass, but that rights owner will still always try and find a specialist broadcaster in the local market, even though they might be going D2C themselves.”

The topic of fan engagement revealed strong opinions.

Manoharan commented: “All over the world, the general trend in sports is that the audience is ageing,

“I live in Dubai. You would expect that I should be able to watch cricket very easily. In this day and age, in my home, I can’t watch cricket on a big screen; I have to watch it on my mobile” Sunil Manoharan, VP Media Rights, International Cricket Council (ICC) the younger people are not getting into any sports, and I am not talking about any particular sport. People who have started watching pay TV or linear TV are getting older and the younger lot is not coming in.”

Brydon, a self-proclaimed sports stats enthusiast, suggested that engaging people with a deep-dive into sports data may be a great alternative, but does not seem to work in the present day. He blamed the media partly for the pre- and post-match banalities marring what is otherwise an effective way to stimulate fan curiosity and involvement.

The folly is in society’s demand for poster children who can do no wrong, he claimed. “We don’t seem to want humans out there, flawed people playing sport. We want them to be clean and easy, say interesting things … we need heroes. We need

people out there to grab fans.”

His solution was a more forgiving media world. “Let people speak more freely, and we will get fans, more fans, simply from portraying human stories and real human beings on screen.”

But what does it mean to be a fan when games on gizmos are preferred to those on the field? For the ICC, Manoharan says the prime question is how to involve younger fans. “How do you make them followers and believers in the sport?”

The answer can be found in the gizmos themselves. “The advent of mobile is a major thing. Interactivity is massive. If you have seen Twitch, all the gaming content that goes on there, how gamers talk to each other while watching something … Gaming is very important.

For example, everyone knows what FIFA 21 has done for fan engagement to convert people.

A game is massively important to get younger kids into the sport.”

Von Doussa quizzed the panellists about whether sportspeople making a complete transition to e-gaming and esports platforms such as Twitch is the inevitable future. Sharing his personal experience with an 11-year-old, Bates said gaming is the way to go, but even that proceeds from an inclination towards the real sport.

“I think the reason that they transcend into things like FIFA starts with a love of the sport. I look at my own son and my friends’ kids … I think the love of sports is the starting point. The love of watching and playing those sports is where, for a lot of people, the evolution into the e-gaming comes into play.

Although there is a shift definitely in that generation to e-gaming, I still think that live sports and real sports, and as Simon has rightly mentioned real heroes, are still going to play a big role in people’s consumption going forward.”

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PROSTRATEGY

He added, however, that he doesn’t expect a total shift in the next generation. “For that generation, it’s more complementary, it’s a way to bring something that they love to life, to have their own interaction with it, more than actually replacing something altogether anyway.”

Manoharan concurred.

“I think everyone looks at gaming as the platform that helps the viewer engage with the sport much better. The kid who plays FIFA will know all the players when he starts watching football. He becomes a lifelong football fan. His engagement

“There’s a great opportunity here for a broadcaster or OTT platform to … acquire all the cricket rights. If you combine that with a trend of lowering data prices, it could be a win-win situation for everyone” Sunil Manoharan, VP Media Rights, International Cricket Council (ICC)

with the sport deepens by playing the video game. So the video game is actually complementary to the sport. Ultimately, it’s the sport that people are following. But gaming is a very important element of how you reel the younger audience in.”

On the question of whether a local cricket league is in the offing for the UAE, he said there’s room for games on a small scale.

“There is a market for it. The UAE has a massive Commonwealth/ South Asian expat population, with people who understand cricket. You can’t make it into a money-making thing of ‘time to get players from India’ and so on. There is enough homegrown talent; you can organise events and then monetise the rights accordingly, locally. You have to start low and build engagement from there. There will be people who will take it up, especially now that OTT is going in a great space.

I think the future is very bright.”

The possibility of separate broadcast rights for different MENA countries was dismissed. Manoharan explained that earlier on, major pay-TV broadcasters such as OSN and BeIn had competed for the major sports rights together and ultimately canvassed the entire region.

“That is easy for a federation to do, one deal rather than going to each of the 22 territories around.

If you are doing a new pan-MENA deal, just to carve out one country becomes very difficult. If you carve out one country, then what do you do to the rest? What you need for the entire region is a super-aggregator who comes in and buys the Premier League rights or the FIFA rights.”

Bainbridge, however, pointed out that “we are going from a relatively small number of very high-value agreements – done over longer periods of time – to rights holders and federations wanting to be more flexible. What was previously a unified, one-deal agreement that you are thrown in for five years, now

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“We are going from a relatively small number of very highvalue agreements … to rights holders and federations wanting to be more flexible” Steve F. D. Bainbridge, Partner, Head of Sports Law & Events Management, Al Tamimi Company could be four to six different ones.”

“An issue we see now is that rights holders are actually not sure where they are going to be next, and they are trying to save or carve out certain rights that maybe they cannot even envisage monetising yet, but it can be done in a different way from before. I think this will continue, because there is innovation in the sector and there are new ways to monetise rights.”

The discussion concluded with the panellists agreeing that the sports industry has been continuously evolving in light of the lockdown, with the industry in a state of change with new technologies and strategies being adopted in response to market conditions.

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PROINTERVIEW

INTEGRATING INTELLIGENTLY

He was only eight when he first took apart a phone and put it back together again. A passionate engineer equally comfortable in both IT and broadcast ecosystems, regional veteran Suhail Ahmed, CEO of One Diversified FZ LLC, takes us through the nuances of systems integration in the Arab world You are CEO of a newly integrated entity with all the freedom to operate autonomously within the region. How has that been to your advantage?

As a local entity, we understand all the nuances that go with the region and have the full freedom to construct solutions both technically and commercially, and that is a massive advantage. We have a significant advantage over competing peers because we are not bound by central rules. That’s Diversified’s operational model across the board, where all our entities operate autonomously. Of course, we have principles and policies and goals and aspirations, but everything else is localised. That is what motivated me to continue with the company post the acquisition. We remain fully agnostic when it comes to vendors, and aspire towards using the best-of-breed to deliver to our customer’s needs and goals.

How is MENA different from other regions?

Entities often deploy technologies because it ticks a box rather than because they genuinely need it. It is probably one of the reasons why you will not see them adapt a technology to the level that you see of cloud, for example, in Europe and the US. For instance, if you build a 4K studio but only create 1080i, what was the objective of having it? That’s the difference between a 4K project in, say, the US or Europe, where this is a whole end-to-end commercial plan on why it’s being executed. Some customers are well organised because their business models and technologies are aligned.

Whenever they come out with a tender, it is aligned with their business objectives – and that’s how it should be.

What approach do you advocate for a broadcast business?

Most people seem to be taking the IT approach.

It depends on the kind of expertise you have in your organisation and your overall content objectives. If you are IT-heavy, you will go with IT solutions and it will be a natural evolution; we will continue to see more

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conversions towards IT, and data will become a key pillar of any media business operations. For the last four years, I myself have pivoted a lot towards data and have been trying to focus on internal IT and DevOps. Our regional broadcast engineers have adapted well and are keen on upskilling. When it was SD, they moved to HD and 4K over 12G. Also, we see a growing trend with most people doing Amazon certifications being from Tx and MCR. So there is a good passion among engineers here in the Middle East to self-improve and enhance their skills.

How was 2020 for you? Did you secure any projects?

Last year was an unknown for all of us. We had no idea on how we would steer through it but as a group, our first priority was to keep everyone safe; and secondly, to retain everyone we had. We were at the last mile of the Al Arabiya project when Covid hit and it was a challenge to get them on air on March 24, but we worked closely with the MBC team and the local authorities to get them on air. We also delivered a facility for Facebook in Dubai. Towards Q4, we were also contracted by MBC to upgrade and migrate their audio mixers from Studer to Lawo. Lawo was not able to fly out. We have finished the commissioning using a hybrid delivery mechanism with our team working on the ground and Lawo’s engineers remoting in. We currently are in the last steps of handover for this. We have also been busy with a couple of consultancies for projects that require people with commercial, technical and operational knowledge.

There seems to be two factions within the broadcast fraternity – the NDI advocates and the SMPTE ST2110 believers. What is your opinion?

We need both, because one is compressed and the other is uncompressed. When you require each of them depends on what you are trying to achieve with your content. If it is news and you have a remote office, cost plays an important

PROINTERVIEW

May 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 43

PROINTERVIEW

Suhail Ahmed with BroadcastPro ME’s coveted award for Best Systems Integrator of the Year (2020), won by Diversified.

role. If I was trying to achieve something next-gen and wanted to go with baseband, and all it is is a talking head, I will probably capture my studio in NDI, audio in Dante and link it back using SRT because it’s a contribution feed. So across the chain, I can go with low codecs, keep my internet cost low and bring valuable contribution back. When it comes to shows or events, you will need more quality, so I would go with ST2110.

There are two factors that will always impact decisions while choosing technology – timelines and budgets. If you are an existing organisation, ST2110 has many nuances to the configuration and commissioning side, unlike SDI. The design takes more time when compared to an SDI project. Where I would require a month and a half with SDI, the design period for ST2110 would potentially be three months. ST2110 does offer greater resilience in comparison to SDI, and this can be a crucial factor for many organisations.

If an organisation is planning to look at and invest in IP, the first step is to have an internal champion who can take their current operations and work with the SIs and manufacturers to produce a solution that best fits their organisation. Also, the level of training and internal transformation is a key aspect of this undertaking.

One needs to plan ahead as they need to factor more time for an IP-based system. They will need to allocate more time in design and a lot more time in commissioning to ensure the highest level of success for their projects.

What challenges do organisations face in the digital domain?

The lesson learnt from 2020 is that every business must be part of the digital ecosystem. We have seen different digital offerings from major channels in the region. The thing which OTT brings to all this

“If you build a 4K studio but only create 1080i, what was the objective of having it?

That’s the difference between a 4K project in, say, the US or Europe, where this is a whole end-to-end commercial plan on why it’s being executed” Suhail Ahmed, CEO, One Diversified FZ LLC is more in-depth knowledge of your user. Any existing linear channel that is not considering an OTT avenue will be going for closure soon. That is how important it is. Whether it is in-house or you outsource it, there are plenty of sizes, shapes and ways to achieve it. But it must be part of your business objective. The biggest challenge is customer acquisition. All our customers are used to freemium; converting them is a key challenge. Then there is the issue of churn. Why do people leave a platform? It's simple. If you don’t like the service you will leave.

We can’t lose sight of the fact that in the OTT media business, they are primarily selling content. In our region, there should be a balance between producing local content and buying internationally. I think our region has a massive potential for local content.

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We are seeing that the local productions are not only going up in quantities, but also in quality. There is a mix of international directors, producers and technicians flying in and bringing knowledge with them. That is fundamental, where there is a learning and mixing of resources, producing local content and then pushing that across your OTT. Technology today is there.

You have to sort out what you want to achieve on the business front and then, depending on the target audience and the revenue, you can choose which part to keep in-house and which to outsource.

Two fundamental things will always keep coming back – timeline and budget. Budget will have two parts. First is building up the business infrastructure, which includes the OTT and the acquisition of content. Second is the marketing budget, where you will need x amount to acquire these customers.

You need to reach these customers.

There are questions to ask: Which telco will you partner with in which region? How soon can you come into the market and compete with existing players? How strong are your telco offerings?

What is your technology roadmap?

For the business team, this undertaking could spread across various projects as they bring their product to market and scale it.

Does the tendering process need to change with the times?

We still see a lot of box-specific tenders. The client then loses that commercial advantage. In the world of cloud and SAS models, where you are selling services, everything becomes agnostic. So our tenders need to adapt to that, where if I need to build a studio with on-ground cameras, you can put in quantitative features but don’t put in brands.

What operational functions are you trying to achieve? That will get you the best-of-breed responses.

PROTECH

SCALING UP PRODUCTION THROUGH THE CLOUD

Cloud-based models are leading the way in unlocking with flexible technology all the principal workflows used in broadcast, allowing customers to prepare for change as the world of TV continues to evolve, says Chuck Meyer

In today's dynamically shifting media market, our customers need to engage with global audiences that can no longer be reached through one or two platforms. It is not enough to just up output level – productions must scale vertically and horizontally across formats, versions, language, device types and platforms to meet an increasingly diverse audience footprint. Added to this, broadcasters and content producers around the globe must balance the spiralling demand for content with rising production costs.

As the consumer has embraced on-demand content and TV technology has followed suit, many of the broadcast functions that were only really viable as highly specialised hardware can now be delivered as software-only implementations.

With benefits like scale, reach and flexibility, having a cloud strategy is no longer debatable, it is essential. One of the most critical gains from a cloud approach is eliminating the need to maintain significant infrastructure assets, such as equipment rooms, racks of servers and complex networking designs. In turn, customers are free to focus on their core line of business – creating and delivering stunning content. Flexible, cloud-based environments that use virtualisation go one step further, offering a viable alternative geared towards on-demand and OPEX-focused models.

The potential to lower CAPEX, boost efficiencies and scale operations meant cloud and SaaS adoption was firmly in the TV industry's sights even before the pandemic hit.

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Covid-19 has accelerated the move towards cloud-based infrastructures and workflows, with uptake gaining momentum.

Traditionally, the TV industry has run on purpose-built systems specifically created to handle video, with the 'asa-service' consumption model mainly used for tasks such as playout and other content distribution processes – but that was already changing before 2020. Data from the 2018 Devoncroft Media and Entertainment Cloud Adoption Index projected that cloud usage across the sector would rise by 88% between 2016 and 2021. The pandemic and its restrictions have only served to speed up a process already underway – what many in the industry thought was three to five years away is now becoming a reality.

This was certainly the case for Los Angeles-based live entertainment and media company De Tune. As most in-person live events were put on hold in 2020, De Tune needed to support completely virtual live event broadcasts, and carried this out by leveraging the cloud. The De Tune team opted for a cloud-native production platform to create a master control room (MCR) in the cloud with full redundancy, accessible anywhere globally to support a series of live online events.

Furthermore, Discovery's multi-sports brand Eurosport, in undertaking a major technology transformation to provide 'true cloud' architecture supporting playout across the network's sports broadcasts, chose cloud-based playout technology as the key component. These are just some of the

PROTECH

examples of cloud integration in the media production chain today.

The need to produce more content to feed growing consumer demand, and the need to distribute multiple versions of that content to a broader range of affiliates and platforms, is a perfect storm that the move to the cloud addresses very effectively.

Delivering greater volumes of content more efficiently is a major driving force behind the industry's transition to more flexible and scalable IP-based infrastructures and workflows. It opens up new ways of working, such as remote and distributed production.

Over the last two years, we have seen an ongoing shift towards technologies and workflows designed to enable better remote production and achieve more while limiting or even reducing costs. This shift includes the widespread adoption of IP as a replacement for SDI and more use of software rather than dedicated hardware, to reduce

cost and enable more automation.

Sectors like IT have been cloudcentric for several years, but tapping the cloud for TV is trickier. In the IT world, when an application takes an extra couple of seconds to carry out a process, the end user does not really notice. In broadcast, two seconds of black screen during a live sporting event, or outof-sync audio, is just unacceptable.

The biggest challenge of the cloud is that it fundamentally needs IP-based workloads and the transition to IP in the TV world is very much ongoing.

Although many key standards have been defined, many industry segments are still only partway through the journey.

Added to this scenario, some of the most difficult technical issues that ensure the cloud's capacity to deliver the same experience as on-site production have only recently been solved.

Delivering mission-critical solutions that overcome issues such as audio synchronisation and acceptable endto-end latency – all within a userfriendly operator environment – are just some of the specific challenges that customers are looking to overcome. As a result, early pioneers are starting to make their transition.

Some argue that throwing everything into the cloud is the solution as cloud-based models become a more common feature of the production landscape. However, this doesn't always make sense financially or operationally. Remote production via the cloud is certainly an application with many advantages, including more flexibility and the ability to scale up (and down) quickly within an OPEX model. However, it may not always be financially sensible; existing investment in broadcast TV technology runs into the hundreds of billions, and broadcasters can continue to sweat these assets for a significant amount of time. Specific processes are still more efficient, faster and cheaper, and provide larger capacity via local, highly specialised hardware.

I believe that cloud adoption in broadcast will be focused around three key areas: playout, production and live.

In the cloud, common technologies can be used to support applications previously seen as having very little in common. Playout has the lowest technical challenge today. It has been the industry starting point, however, with its high utilisation of the underlying infrastructure. The economic value gained by moving playout into the cloud is optimised in applications where different renditions of a common program are required for simultaneous distribution, or when other encoding methods and quality can be exploited as ‘plug and play’ services based on cost-optimised delivery to consumers.

Live is the most demanding of all applications and requires the lowest latency, the highest simultaneous signal counts and the highest number of operators to capture and create the program.

Large sporting events, for example, require significant coordination of these resources. In addition, people should be empowered to carry out their workflow using traditional control surfaces, while also being able to adopt new methods of controlling content creation.

Transitioning live production to the cloud is a real game-changer for the industry. It offers the opportunity to optimise the number and location of any resource group and exploit the cloud for scale and elasticity, to fit the requirement of a given production.

Chuck Meyer is Technology Fellow at Grass Valley.

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PROGUEST

“Regional media companies can therefore no longer view digital revenue as a luxury. They must urgently diversify through digital business models”

The path to growth for Middle East media in a post-pandemic world During the Covid-19 pandemic, MENA consumers have greatly increased their consumption of digital video and audio content, accelerating a trend that is unlikely to slow down when the pandemic subsides. Meanwhile, the already weak advertising-supported media market has been eroded further, and will take some time to recover even to its 2019 levels.

Regional media companies can therefore no longer view digital revenue as a luxury. They must urgently diversify through digital business models, and focus on subscriptions, direct relationships with consumers, and monetisation of content. Governments can facilitate this transition by devising regulation which supports the growth of the digital media market, while telecom operators can seize a growth opportunity as enablers and aggregators.

According to our Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2020-24, global digital revenue in 2020 is estimated to for the first time have accounted for more than half of the total entertainment and media revenue. The study suggests that the MENA region is not far behind the global average – the proportion of digital revenue for the region is estimated at 42%, and is expected to grow to 46% by 2024.

It is not difficult to understand why 2020 was a watershed year. With the lockdowns imposed by governments to control the pandemic, the demand for streamed video content immediately mushroomed. In the first month of the lockdown, 50% of OTT video subscribers increased their viewing time. Subscription services such as Netflix, Shahid and Starzplay Arabia

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responded to the burgeoning demand by adding more local content. This created a virtuous circle, with yet more viewers attracted to the platforms. Given the expanding supply of content on both regional and international platforms, OTT revenue is expected to grow by a CAGR of 12.3% between 2019 and 2024.

While there may be some quibbles over the exact figures, advertising revenue is stalling in comparison to consumer-paid revenue. Moreover, the digital proportion of advertising revenue is growing steadily. Regional media companies must adapt their business models to exploit the areas of higher growth; otherwise, global players will devote more attention to the growing MENA opportunity and invest the necessary resources to achieve a pre-eminent market position.

For larger media companies, this means a wholehearted commitment to their OTT platforms, making them as appealing as possible to the consumer in terms of both content and design.

The OTT platform cannot be regarded as a second-rate alternative to freeto-air channels. Media companies will need to produce a differentiated volume of original local content and build scale through geographic expansion across the region. These platforms could either be purely subscription-based or a mix between advertising and subscription tiers.

Given their limited resources and audiences, however, it would be inefficient for smaller players to create and maintain their own platforms.

They have two avenues open to them. One is to pool resources and content with other media companies

to create a combined platform, thus reducing costs and increasing the reach of each individual company.

Alternatively, they can work with telecom operators as aggregators to host content from various media companies on their platforms, in return for a proportion of the revenue. Telecom operators already have the attributes to perform this role effectively – a billing relationship with customers and the necessary infrastructure and distribution capabilities. Even larger media companies could benefit from a telecom operator’s extensive reach when it comes to distribution. This is also a significant growth opportunity for telecom operators as they seek new revenue sources.

Media companies must also determine how to augment their capabilities in the most cost-effective way, possibly through acquisitions or partnerships. Essential competencies include subscriber management, original content production, digital distribution and viewer data analytics.

Governments should also work with media companies to design effective digital regulation that protects consumers without stifling competition. They should strive for simplicity in regulation oversight.

Governments can also help support the development of content production infrastructure and ecosystems, such as stimulating innovation through funding and incubator projects in association with development funds, venture capitalists and other investors.

By Karim Sarkis, Partner, Karim Daoud, Senior Executive Advisor, and Abhijat Sharma, Senior Manager – Strategy& Middle East, part of the PwC network.