The cable guy Etisalat’s E-Vision service

[khurramdar]

The cable guy


Mar 4, 2010


Etisalat’s E-Vision service has emerged as one of the largest pay TV platforms in the MENA region. CEO Humaid Rashid Sahoo tells John Parnell about the company’s plans for the future.

A lot has changed since UAE telco Etisalat launched its first foray into the cable TV market ten years ago. The region was dominated by satellite TV distribution with alternatives few and far between. A number of telcos have since looked to rollout TV services following the triple- and quad-play models seen in other markets where cable â€" and latterly IPTV â€" offerings are well established. Of these, Etisalat’s E-Vision service is by far the largest.

“We started E-Vision on a technology called hybrid fibre-coaxial, a standard for the cable TV industry, and we were only in 20,000 homes,” says Humaid Rashid Sahoo, CEO, E-Vision. “We started in IP in 2007 and are developing our full IPTV service now. Etisalat has an ambitious plan to cover the whole of the UAE with fibre to the home (FTTH) by the end of 2011. By the end of this year Abu Dhabi will be the only capital city in the world to have full fibre connectivity. This gives us a huge boost. We are riding on the Etisalat network so when the fibre network is complete, every home in the Emirates will become a target for us.”

According to figures released by Informa Telecoms and Media last year, E-Vision is now the third largest pay TV service in the Middle East and North Africa with an estimated 340,000 subscribers. To highlight the extent of this accomplishment you must consider the fact that the service is only available in the UAE (population less than 5 million).

Of these five million people, many are currently restricted to services from rival du or unable to receive either service at all.

The FTTH network will make a huge difference.

“I have been given a target subscriber figure to achieve and we have a very ambitious plan, by 2011 every house in the UAE will be the target; that’s more than 700,000 homes. We will be targeting all of those, although we don’t expect to get 100 percent of them of course,” says Sahoo.

With Etisalat operating telco services in a vast number of international markets including Indonesia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia India, and Egypt, could E-Vision expand its own reach beyond the borders of the UAE?

“Our focus at the moment is in the domestic market. We have not yet completed our mission in the UAE,” says Sahoo. “Each market has its own characteristics and when you are looking to launch a pay TV service or platform you need to study it to identify the content and the pricing strategies necessary. But the experience that we have gained in the past 10 years in the UAE can be applied to other markets â€" especially ones where we have an existing Etisalat service already â€" in particular the KSA and Egyptian markets.
We are already in discussions with some of the operators there and exploring the ideas of how they can benefit from our service, and if they are interested in launching cable TV or indeed exploring any kind of content strategy for that matter. The telecom and the media industries are now actively merging together so it is a great opportunity for us to capitalise on this trend. If a telco wants to offer a TV service to expand its portfolio we are in a position to help them.”

Sahoo says that although the presence of an existing Etisalat service in a given territory does make it more likely that they would consider a TV operation, it does not exclude those countries where there is no such operation by its sister company.

“Of course, if we were in more than one territory we would be in a better bargaining position when purchasing content as we would be able to leverage the mass, not just the UAE. What is also important is offering content to more than one platform. Etisalat already has content plans for online, mobile and for kiosks so we can join with Etisalat to negotiate these rights not just for TV but for mobile and online distribution,” explains Sahoo.

E-Vision currently offers the bouquets of OSN, ART and TFC in addition to a number of exclusive channels and two E-Vision branded channels, e-junior and e-masala.

“I’m especially proud of e-junior. All the research we have done has proved that it has the biggest market share in its category for the UAE. We want e-junior to incorporate more local production and cover all the relevant events here in the UAE. We have also invested in improving its online home. Kids here are very tech savvy so as well as watching e-junior on the TV they can go through the internet portal, it makes it closer to them.”

Given the success of e-junior, is the telco likely to develop more e- branded channels?

“First and foremost the goal of our content strategy is to meet our customer’s demands. As far as launching more e- channels… it is something we always monitor but we have to see the value for money in these. We have only the UAE audience so it has to be economically feasible.”