Technology Adoption Trends in the MENA Broadcast Industry, 2016–2021

Scope of the Study
This research study includes the following segments:
Scope: broadcast trends, regional adoption index, technology solutions, live streaming, cloud adoption, compression standards, transcoding solutions, and content protection
Geographic scope: Middle East, Levant, and GCC

Key Questions Answered
Who are the key technology vendors catering to the region?
What are the new technology trends and their impacts in the region?
How is technology adoption amongst industry stakeholders?
What is the level of investment going into overhauling legacy systems?
What are the growth drivers and market restraints in the adoption of high-tech solutions?

The broadcast industry in MENA is undergoing an overhaul to evolve with the trends of multi-screen viewing and live streaming. Legacy broadcast systems are either cost ineffective or inefficient to cater to the new demands of consumers and operators. Most technology providers are international companies that either collaborate with local distributors or set up regional operations. Smaller providers are facing stiff competition from the global incumbents, leading to consolidation and acquisitions. Although new age technology is restricted to only major broadcasters in the region due to financial and infrastructural hindrances, the industry is waking up to the need to innovate and adopt advanced solutions for better productivity and higher returns in the long run. An overhaul of systems is required to stay in tune with the ever-changing cultural shifts, adoption of new media, and increasing exposure to international standards through the social media. With multi-screen viewing revolutionising the way television is used, operators must align themselves to build robust solutions to provide OTT, on-demand screening, and live streaming options.

The rise of content theft and security breaches brings to light the importance of content protection to provide a multi-layer cloaking mechanism and other technologies to protect intellectual property. The other trends shaping the industry include high-resolution video quality (HD, UHD, 4K) and supporting devices enabling this technology. The market is gradually shifting towards an on-demand consumption pattern, with a high appetite for HD content. A regional passion for sports mobilises large audiences with an insatiable demand for live content, from global and regional tournaments. This has popularised cloud adoption amongst leading operators in order to bring live content to the consumer both on linear television and OTT applications. This has increased the consumption of OTT video and the concept of paying for premium content. This will bring more consumers into legal consumption channels and gradually decrease the consumption of pirated content. Read Less