Omar Shoter, CEO of Noorsat. Photo: Noorsat

[Via Satellite 10-12-2016] Direct-to-Home (DTH) service provider Noorsat is seeing increased demand for satellite broadcast services across the Arab World, which bodes well for the company as it completes its 10th year anniversary. Originally established to provide satellite capacity for DTH, VSAT, internet and telephony services, the company today is focused principally on DTH. Noorsat uses capacity on the Eutelsat 7A, Eutelsat 7B, Eutelsat 25B and Intelsat 15 satellites, rebranded as Noorsat 7, Noorsat 7B, Noorsat 1 and Noorsat 5, respectively. Incorporated in Bahrain with a regional office in Jordan, the company runs its own teleport and broadcasting center, enabling services including content delivery, playout, television backhaul, Occasional Use TV services and 24/7 customer service.

Today Noorsat reaches more than 50 million TV homes spread across the Arab World. In an interview with Via Satellite Omar Shoter, CEO of Noorsat, shares his vision for the company, his sense of demand for services, and how trends regionally are shaping the broadcast sector in the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) region.

Via Satellite: 2016 marks Noorsat’s 10th year in existence. How has business been lately?

Shoter: Business is very good and solid. We are proud of the progress that we have made over the last 10 years since the establishment of the business. The region that we serve has seen a huge uptick in demand for satellite services and we are responding to this requirement, but we are also prepared for any new demands that emerge in the future.

The population is looking for access to a wider range of TV and radio channels and there is also a great requirement for connectivity for business communications and Internet services. We do not anticipate any slowdown in this demand. The business has grown at a steady rate over the last 10 years and we believe that this will continue. We predict a positive outlook for future business.

Via Satellite: Noorsat has satellite coverage over Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa. What trends are you seeing in these regions?

Shoter: We are seeing demand for both High Definition (HD) TV channels and low budget, small text, low bitrate TV channels. Both need special, state of the art infrastructure and we have equipped (and continue to equip) our teleport with the latest equipment to cater for this demand. We are also about to start supplementary ground services to enhance the reach of our customers.

We are also seeing a rise in demand for broadband and Internet services, especially for businesses. This is another important trend that is happening across the region at present. We are constantly thinking about our customer base and their needs so that we can respond in an agile and proactive way.

Via Satellite: There is a lot of satellite capacity available and becoming available over the MENA region. In your opinion, is there a surplus of capacity? How is, or isn’t this affecting the market?

Shoter: For the DTH TV services from both hotspots serving the Arab World, in the Ku-band, the physical limit has been reached, therefore, no surplus capacity can be added from these orbital slots, any surplus capacity may happen from other slots for non-DTH TV services.

Via Satellite: What would you describe as the biggest market vertical or new business opportunity for Noorsat today?

Shoter: The biggest market vertical for Noorsat would be our DTH TV services. The entire region has an insatiable requirement for TV and this represents our core market. We have access to the only two hotspots that serve the region: Badr Al Nile at 7/8 degrees west orbital position via Noorsat 7 and Noorsat 7B satellites, and Badr Al Arab at 25.5 degrees east orbital position via Noorsat 1 satellite.

As I alluded to before, the demand for regional content in particular is soaring and people want content that is related to their culture, values and traditions. This is what Noorsat provides.

In addition, we are experiencing increased demand for occasional use capacity due to the fact that the Arab World has featured heavily in the news of late and therefore capacity for breaking news and other broadcast purposes is in demand.

I would also say that data-driven services are set to grow as broadband demand increases. We see a lot of requirements for data-centric services from businesses for a variety of applications and we work with them to ensure that their mission-critical needs are met.

Via Satellite: How many channels are you broadcasting today? What is the mix of SD/HD? Do you anticipate broadcasting any Ultra-HD channels in the near future?

Shoter: If we go back in time to 2009, we were broadcasting 170 TV and radio channels across the region. Today, this has increased to more than 300. In 2015, we expanded our DTH TV capacities with the addition of Noorsat 7B in order to meet rising demand across the region.

Noorsat delivered the first HDTV bouquet across the Arab World over the former Noorsat 2 satellite at 7 degrees west. We have been diligent and have tried to future proof our infrastructure as much as possible by upgrading our equipment for HD TV channels, following the required standards.

We are constantly watching the Ultra-HD and 8K developments and spread in the region, and will be ready to equip our teleport to offer such new services whenever the need in the region arises.

Via Satellite: Noorsat has been accused of supporting pirated content in the recent past. Have you found pirated content being distributed by your customers? What is Noorsat doing to curb piracy?

Shoter: At Noorsat we absolutely oppose piracy and fully recognize the damage that it does. In fact, we were behind the MENA Broadcast Satellite Anti Piracy Coalition whose members consist of major stakeholders in the Middle East satellite TV industry. The coalition was formed so that members may share information align strategies to prevent content pirates using broadcast platforms to steal intellectual property rights and damage our legitimate interests. So, we are very passionate about stamping out piracy in all its forms.

We were the first satellite provider to stop pirated TV channels and have taken many TV channels off air in the spirit of cooperation with the coalition. We are dedicated to continuing our cooperation with all coalition members and copyright owners or any other party that asks for our assistance in this matter.

Noorsat is not considered legally responsible for any content broadcast by any TV channel using our platform. When we sign a contract with our clients, it is agreed that the TV channel is liable for any content they broadcast and that they will take responsibility of any infringement of the intellectual property rights.

Noorsat succeeded in minimizing the number of infringements over the last year and we will be focused on improving this further in 2017.