As MENA’s OTT evolution continues full steam ahead,strong here’s how video aggregators are shaping their offering
Digital entertainment is thriving in the region. MENA OTT market generated $2.83 billion in revenue and is expected to reach $5.69 billion by 2028, a solid yearly growth of 13%.The business potential of digital entertainment and the flourishing, mostly youthful, communities of the region have attracted new OTT players into the ring, while the digital transformation wave, boosted by CoVid lockdowns, has inspired existing providers to expand further. Simultaneously, the advent of cord cutting has opened a wide range of opportunities for regional telecom operators to tap into. The new video frontier and advanced connectivity technologies, namely 5G expansion, have allowed them to enter markets adjacent to their core services, where OTT subscription now represents a lightning rod to drive user stickiness and uplift Average Revenue Per User (ARPUs). The great unbundling from traditional satellite and Pay TV providers has led to a proliferation of video streaming platforms. What used to be dominated by YouTube and Netflix is now increasingly fragmented, with several regional and global platforms coming to life in the past few years (Disney+, Shahid, TOD, to name a few).
The unprecedented boom in video offerings has triggered some unwelcome, albeit game-changing, side effects. Customer experience is now heavily weighed down by the availability of a plethora of OTT services to choose from, platforms to browse, and content to discover and consume. With far too many options in the market, users are struggling with various complexities, from running multiple simultaneous subscriptions (video share of wallet has been significantly increasing over the past few years) to switching between accounts on different platforms, and spending more time browsing through content libraries than watching said content. With an abundance of choices to customers, the video experience has become tedious indeed
This poses questions about the future of the industry in the region. How can OTT providers leverage the massive opportunities without draining consumers’ enthusiasm? What can be done to facilitate customers’ relationship to video and safeguard their experience? How can digital entertainment providers continue to add value to a saturated market that continues to expand?
Users today want to have access to a wide and varied content library, consolidated, in one destination. The problem is not in having more volume of content as much as it is in the steps and hoops that users must go through to discover the content that appeals to them. More content is better – through consolidation in a unified database of content, not by scattering it across various platforms. Furthermore, recommendation algorithms play an important role in complementing library consolidation with hyper-personalized suggestions to customers.
The solution is then to have a video service that ensures access to a large content database, sourced from the top global and regional providers and plugged through a single platform. This way users have access to all the entertainment in one destination, through a unified subscription and with a user interface that allows them to seamlessly navigate, find and consume their content of choice. Welcome to the Super Aggregator era.
As a leading digital entertainment provider in the region, Intigral adopts a Super-Aggregator OTT strategy based on a deep understanding of customer pain points, market dynamics, and the tools requisite for improving the CX. The brand offers two platforms for users across the MENA markets: Jawwy TV and stc tv.
Both platforms offer access to an extensive content library curated from a variety of global and regional names, with access to digital-first originals and exclusive titles every month. Intigral partners with over 30 world-class networks including Shahid, OSN, Fox, Starzplay, discovery+, and WideKhaliji to offer a vast library of Arabic and Western Video-on-Demand; more than 27,000 titles, and 200 linear channels. With one of the widest and deepest content libraries, that is complemented with hyper-personalized content recommendations, the platforms have made content discovery as simple as possible for their viewers.
Besides being a great way to attract and retain active viewership, the super-aggregation model is an excellent value generator in terms of improving the overall video streaming experience. By using one platform, viewers are empowering aggregators to collect and analyze more data about their consumption habits; what they watch, and how they watch it. Intigral utilizes its advanced data analytics to gain actionable insights that are then leveraged to recommend relevant content to its audience, facilitating navigation, discovery and crediting back watching time for its users. The experience is further supplemented thanks to an excellent Quality of video streaming and reliability. These are key features viewers expect, and with ground-breaking content delivery technologies over cloud-based platforms, Intigral consistently delivers high-quality streams for the enjoyment of its audience.
Overall, MENA region is seen as a key growth market for video services in the coming years. To ensure sustainability, OTT providers must continue to deliver a frictionless service with a full-fledged library in one platform, available anywhere, at any time at excellent standards of content recommendation and delivery. With a deep understanding of its subscriber base, Intigral places the viewer at the heart of its development strategies, by consolidating a rich and deep library on its video platforms, embracing insights to drive a meaningful decision-making process and delivering a personalized journey that enriches their daily lives and positively impacts digital entertainment across the region.
