Doha, Qatar. Photo: Jimmy Baikovicius (Flickr)

[Via Satellite 11-09-2015] As of October 2015 four satellite pay-TV operators broadcasting from the Arab World — Orbit Showtime Network (OSN), beIN Sports, Al Majd and MyHD — offered a combined total of 280 channels, according to Arab Advisor’s Group. Based on the research group’s new “Satellite pay-TV Operators in the Arab World 2015” report, OSN leads in the number of channels, with beIN Sports offering the highest number of sports pay-TV channels with 21 sports channels.

“By September 2015, the four pay-TV providers offered 280 channels. OSN had the highest number with 162 channels (including the three pay-per-view channels and two On-Demand channels); MyHD came in second with 84 channels. beIN Sports offered 21 channels, while Al Majd TV provided 13 channels,” Hiba Al Atiyat, senior research analyst at Arab Advisors, wrote in the report.

Three of the four pay-TV providers offer HD channels: OSN, beIN Sports and MyHD. OSN and MyHD offered 55 and 53 HD channels, respectively, while beIN Sports provided 20 HD channels.

“The total air time per month for the four pay TV providers reached 201,600 hours. OSN and MyHD had a 57.9 percent and 30 percent share of the total airtime, respectively, while beIN Sports’ market share of the total airtime reached 7.5 percent. As for Al Majd, it stood at 4.6 percent by end of September 2015,” Al-Atiyat added.