Faith in the small screen

As the business of voice is commoditised, providing premium mobile content and value added services is one way operators can differentiate their services. Director of new media at pan-Arab broadcaster MBC, Ammar Bakkar shares with Michelle Mills how the company is partnering with regional operators in delivering 3G mobile content

Ammar Bakkar, director of new media at pan-Arab broadcaster MBC

“Despite all the speculation, in reality 3G platforms outside Saudi Arabia and the Emirates have very limited capabilities. Qatar has a similar platform to Saudi and the UAE, but is not yet focussed on 3G content,” states Ammar Bakkar, director of new media at MBC.

Focussing on these key markets during Ramadan this year, MBC partnered with Etisalat in the UAE and Saudi Telecom in offering four-minute episode summaries or “mobisodes” of popular Ramadan television shows. These were available for viewing on mobiles a day ahead of regular television screening and in addition, content including ringtones, ringback tones, themes, wallpapers and behind-the-scenes clips were offered to mobile subscribers.

MBC has also tied-up with Etisalat to offer ‘Internet TV’ to UAE viewers, who can watch the top nine MBC programmes aired during Ramadan through their computers for free.

These are only some of the initiatives that MBC has developed for the mobile space, the most significant being the creation of the ‘new media’ unit at the broadcaster, as part of the company’s 2006 ‘digital strategy’.

“This production unit is responsible for producing dramas and comedy, which are written, shot and edited entirely for mobile,” comments Bakkar. “We now have exclusive partnerships with du and Zain [in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait] to provide these four minutes episodes. Every month has a show of 30 episodes, and there are four shows in total.”

While it remains speculative how strongly the consumer market will respond, Bakkar says that providing unique and interesting content is one way operators around the world are distinguishing their offerings and creating sticking points with their customers. But, he notes that the Middle East lags behind regions like parts of Asia and Europe in terms of technical capabilities, availability of content and a large uptake in consumption.

“We know the fact that content creates the habit for using 3G services. Strong content creates strong consumption and a strong motivation for people to convert. However, there are still many factors that need to be improved on 3G networks. They are still slow, they cannot support large bandwidth, the usability is not very good and users often have technical errors. There is still so much to be done technically, in order for 3G mobile content to become an attractive lifestyle alternative.”

Bakkar suggests that the way media content is managed by operators could improve. The voice business is lucrative and a known formula, while value added services are considered a long-term investment to help retain customers.

“The minute you say this is nonprofit or value added services, for a long-term investment, this requires a different mindset. Value added services need entrepreneurship, initiative, creativity and a high usability when you introduce services,” comments Bakkar. “They need a different management mindset than for voice, but in many cases it is the same manager in the organisation overseeing them, which is slowing the development in a lot of Arab operators.”

Bakkar believes that as operators recognise the need for strong partnerships with established media companies, the brand names of broadcasters such as MBC will help lure consumers to premium offerings.

“As viewers migrate from the classic TV platform to the web, mobile, IPTV or iPods, we want to extend our brand experience to these new platforms. MBC consumers will be able to find similar content that they are used to and this will help us overcome the competition on these platforms.”