To most television viewers, the merger of two of the region’s biggest paid-TV providers probably came as something of a surprise while slumped on the sofa with the remote control one evening last year.
Within 24 hours of Orbit Communications and Showtime Arabia announcing their alliance on 12 July 2009, two sets of subscribers across MENA were instantly given access to whole raft of previously unattainable premium channels.
Orbit viewers suddenly had Showmovies 1, Showseries, Showcomedy, Showsports 3 and E! Entertainment available to them, while Showtime subscribers found Super Movies, America Plus and Super Comedy added to their schedule. For television fans, this meant that shows such as True Blood, Entreatment, Prison Break, Heroes and Lost were now fighting for attention each evening, alongside movies like Quantum of Solace, Sex And The City: The Movie and The Golden Compass, plus the 2009/2010 English Premiership season.
Less than six months later, the new Orbit Showtime Network (OSN) was unveiled, and alongside repackaging the previous roster, eight new channels were immediately added. OSN Arabia gave viewers shows such as House MD and CSI NY, alongside Hollywood films, all dubbed into Arabic. And in OSN Movies HD, Discovery HD and Nat Geo HD, the region had its first high definition channels.
“The merger has changed the viewing experience tremendously,” says Marc-Antoine d’Halluin, OSN’s president and chief executive. “It’s a combination of making better sense for the subscriber, by providing a one-stop shop, a better proposition from a paid-TV perspective. From an operator perspective, it puts an end to an escalation of programming costs that became somewhat irrational and disconnected from the reality of the size of the businesses.”
Just a year after the deal was announced, OSN is now delivering 75 premium content channels and nine high definition channels. “HD is the biggest TV revolution in decades,” claims d’Halluin. “It offers subscribers a cinematic experience, a television picture that is crisp, pure and unparalleled in sound quality, all in the comfort of the viewer’s own home.” According to UK-based market analysis company IMS Research, the number of homes across the world receiving their HD broadcast through ‘direct-to-home’ paid-TV services, such as OSN, is estimated to grow by an average of 27.5 per cent annually through to 2013.
The merger has also provided a sizeable benefit for the operators in helping them to fight crime. “There are all sorts of interesting technologies which exist today that will enable us to do a better job in fighting piracy,” says d’Halluin, adding that the previous five years had simply benefited pirate organisations. OSN announced in January that it was rolling out new set-top boxes containing improved encryption technology. “I’m confident we will be able to eradicate piracy.”
Of course, to most OSN subscribers, the piracy fighting benefits of the merger and their new plastic boxes are of no concern, aside from finding space for them on an already bustling TV cabinet. What does matter is that the latest shows and cinema releases are aired before anyone else, and with HD there’s definitely a regional first to keep customer’s bragging rights with their neighbours.
OSN may have lost the licence to show the English Premier League for the next three seasons to Abu Dhabi Media Company, but so long as it continues to screen Glee, Dollhouse, Grey’s Anatomy and whichever new hit shows are lurking round the corner, the marriage of Orbit and Showtime should be a happy one.
www.osnetwork.com
