The Middle East is no different from the rest of the world when it comes to
digital media and broadband demand as the young and tech savvy are big
consumers of content. Driving this usage pattern is demographics as an
estimated 50% of the population is under the age of 30.
Until the focus on broadband by mobile operators strong competition was
lacking in many of the region’s broadband markets due to non existent or
immature network access regulatory or unfavourable economics to support
development of a Greenfield operator to engage in extensive
infrastructure-based competition. However a number of countries, particularly
in the Gulf, did commence building sophisticated broadband access
infrastructure. Examples include Qatar's national broadband network and the
FttH network deployment undertaken by UAE's Etisalat.
Underpinning mobile broadband growth is the need by mobile operators to
develop new revenue growth opportunities as mobile voice markets reach
maturity. In many instances the downlink speeds advertised by the mobile
operators which have deployed HSPA or LTE networks is higher that offered by
competing fixed broadband offerings.
The Middle East’s growing Internet user base is driving demand for Arabic
content, with entertainment content a key area of focus for end users. The lack
of Arabic language support by some content providers and the need to translate
existing content into Arabic has led to a number of initiatives to create the
necessary content. In some instances entrepreneurs have instead targeted
content offerings towards Middle Eastern Diaspora communities in Europe or the
United States, where affordable broadband allows consumption of high bandwidth
content such as streaming Video-on-Demand.
ICANN’s move to allow non-Latin script to be used in web addresses has
allowed further localisation of content, increasing accessibility.
Typical subscription and advertising-based revenue models in the digital
media market face a number of challenges in the Middle East; including the lack
of reliable measuring system for media as well as underdeveloped e-commerce and
online payment infrastructure.
In the broadcasting space, telecom operators are emulating their global
counterparts by launching IPTV offerings, which in many instances face tough
competition from the region’s flourishing Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite TV
sector and a number of Middle East-based VoD platforms.
For more information see – MiddleEast - Digital Media, Broadband and Internet Market and Forecasts
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