Top 10 players of Mideast TV business grab 70% of ads

From a single channel broadcaster, MBC has expanded into eight-channel bouquet in the last 18 years. Today, it boasts of relaying some of the most watched TV shows in the world to their audience in the region.

Mazen Hayek – Group Director of Marketing, PR and Commercial – talks about the growing relevance of the Middle East – with a large segment of audience it deserves attention from the industry.

Resenting the fact that Middle East receives merely one per cent of the world advertising spend despite being a very healthy market, he talks about the trends in the industry in the wake of the recently-concluded MIPTV show in Cannes, France.


The recently-concluded MIPTV, the largest trade show in Cannes, was focusing on Middle East and China. What does that signify for the region?

The whole ad spend in the Middle East amounts to less than one per cent of global ad spend. In addition, the ad spend per capita is amongst the lowest in the world – even lower than the emerging markets. So this talk about the world waking up to the Middle East market is interesting and encouraging, but we all have a challenge in the Middle East to go out to the advertisers and raise this bar.

Our viewers are getting the best of the viewing pleasure; the same as the rest of the world, but that is possible if we have consistent support from advertisers.

If we believe, and we do believe that advertising is the necessary lifeline of media, especially the TV broadcasting, it becomes even more coherent to raise the investment in advertising. We, at MBC, want to further enhance the viewing pleasure for the 300 million inhabitants in the region, then the ad spend has to exponentially grow to be able to acquire the best of programming and provide the best viewing pleasures to the customers.

Having said that, MBC has been investing and spending money and efforts to acquire, procure or buy some of the best programmes and provide top quality TV programming to our viewers, which is same as any other western market.

Does that mean MBC is in deficit at the moment and doesn't depend on advertising money to invest in programming?

MBC Group is probably one of the only groups, if not the only media group, to be profitable in the Middle East. If you look at the region it appears cluttered, and it is cluttered in reality. But if you look carefully, the top 50 channels get majority of advertising [up to 90 per cent] and the top 10 in fact get more than 70 per cent of the ad revenue. This leaves us to realise that it's not exactly so cluttered at the top and most of the serious players in TV business in the Middle East are the real entertainment providers and attract most of the ad revenue.

So even with more than 450 plus TV channels, viewers and advertisers have made up their mind and more than 400 channels are fighting for attention of viewers and are getting less than 10 per cent share of the ad revenue in the region.

Do you think it's a crowded market with so many channels aired in the region?

Perhaps it is crowded if you look at the number of channels being aired in the region. But, when you consider the channels being watched and utilised by advertisers, its not so crowded.

Out of more than 450 channels, the top 10 channels enjoy 70 per cent of the viewership and almost the same percentage of advertising revenue. But if you take it to the top 50 channels in the region, they attract almost 95 per cent of the audience and ad revenue.

So in the best scenario, the remaining 400 odd channels are struggling to get the remaining five per cent of the audience share and advertising revenue. It clearly indicates that viewers and advertisers have made up their choices and for the remaining channels its not viable to remain financially feasible.

So why do we have so many TV channels in the region?

I don't know? Perhaps you should ask those operators about what is the objective of those channels. With so little of advertising revenue to share, it doesn't make any financial sense. May be they have different agenda or a purpose. But I fail to understand the feasibility of these channels.

Is this good for the industry or detrimental?

That's for the boss to decide and in our business viewer is the boss. They decide who they want to watch and for how long. Of course, this is all dependent on the quality of programming that they are getting.

Second boss is the advertiser. He moves the content and by giving financial support increases or enhances the programming quality of the channel, eventually leading to their increased and enhanced reach. Keeping all this in mind, it can be healthy to have good competition in the market, but with so many players without any clear focus and agenda, they intend to confuse the market and with unrealistic claims about their viewership, the advertiser is left more confused in choosing the right platform.

What has been the deciding factor for expansion of MBC from a single channel operator to an eight-channel broadcaster?

MBC Group was the first in the region to launch a privately-owned free-to-air satellite channel in 1991. So there's a pioneering trend in the efforts of MBC. Carrying that forward, came the task of launching specific channels with niche audience.

MBC4 was launched for young women; MBC2 and MBC Max for movie buffs; MBC3 for children and MBC Action for men seeking action on the screen. In addition, we have very successful radio service with two of the leading FM radio stations for Saudi audience. All this has been a result of our very intelligent and clever selection of programming and once we have achieved the support of our regional viewers, rests of the world reacts and as a result we have some very important programmes including the first sit-down interview of US President Barack Obama.

How much of MBC share has increased in the market?

From a very reassuring beginning of less than 20 per cent in 2002, a year after the launch of MBC's first channel, we are today having almost 46 per cent of the market share.

Why did you feel the need to move from London to Dubai in 2001?

The move was strategic when we realised that we need to be closer to our audience, our advertisers and expand into the region, which we are serving.

This close proximity also enabled us to expand horizontally and what we achieved in 1991 as one of the first players in the region, we continued the same after we moved to the Dubai Media City.

MBC has expanded into radio, web portals and in near future will be spreading into production and commissioning of its own programmes on more regular basis.


MBC Group breakdown

MBC1 (General Family Entertainment), MBC2 & MBC MAX (24-hour movie channels), MBC3 (Child Entertainment), MBC4 (World Entertainment), MBC Action (Action Progra-mmes and Movies), MBC Persia (24-hour movie channel subtitled in Farsi) & Al Arabiya (the 24-hour Arabic news channel).

Radio Channels include: MBC FM (Gulf Music) & Panorama FM (Contemporary Arabic Hit Music); a weekly entertainment magazine Haya MBC; and O3 Productions Portal presence: www.mbc.net www.alarabiya.net www.alaswaq.net  


PROFILE:Mazen Hayek Group Director of Marketing, PR & Commercial, MBC Group

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