[Satellite News 12-14-09] YahLive will spend the next year searching from contracts and figuring out how to market its upcoming DTH satellite service to broadcast customers in the Middle East, YahLive CEO Mohamed Youssif told Satellite News.
     Youssif said that YahLive, a joint venture created by SES Astra and Yahsat, expects deals to be signed well in advance of its satellite launch scheduled for early 2011. “We are working on a number of very serious prospects at the moment,” said Youssif. In this next 12 months, we are working out the value proposition that we are going to go to market with. We will focus on technology, and how we will conduct our business. We will look at what value we can bring to our business. We will be putting this infrastructure in place. With a new company, any new entrant has to have something extra, whether that is a focus on pricing, technology etc. These are the kinds of different strategies that new entrants have to look at and this is what we are working on right now.”
     YahLive will own and commercialize 23 BSS-transponders on the Yahsat 1A spacecraft to be positioned at the 52.5 degrees East orbital position and operating in the Ku-band frequency. The satellite, procured from a consortium of EADS Astrium and Thales Alenia Space, is currently under construction.
     Youssif, who previously serviced as COO of Arabsat, admits that it will be challenging to launch YahLive at a time of global economic uncertainty, but expects the Middle East broadcast market to remain resilient in 2010. “If you look at the period from the beginning of 2008 to the middle of 2009 in the Middle East, the number of TV channels increased by around 104. That is a huge number of TV channels demanding capacity. If you add to the mix, the expected conversion to HD channels, and the demands of satellite capacity, even with this economic situation, we don’t see this impacting the demands for satellite capacity,” said Youssif.
     The Middle East market has seen some considerable movement in its pay-TV markets this year with Showtime and Orbit merging to create a DTH powerhouse, which Youssif believes could be the catalyst for a more vibrant pay-TV market in the region. “As you might know, many people don’t feel good about pay-TV in the Middle East. It hasn’t been a good story to tell so far. There could be a number of reasons, but I think the main reason has been the FTA offerings to customers. I really wish this new combined operator great success. It would be a good story for the Middle East. We hope that pay-TV will have a bigger chunk of the pie,” he said.
     Beyond the challenge of establishing a new broadcasting entity, YahLive is a personal investment for Youssif. “I found the challenge that comes with starting a new company to be very interesting and take what I learnt from my previous experiences and bring this to YahLive.”