The established Middle Eastern DTH broadcasters are soon to be joined by the long-awaited MMDS service for Saudi Arabia…

The long-awaited launch of a Saudi Arabian multichannel MMDS system is imminent. ARA Programming and Distribution (APD), the programme-building arm of Al Rawaad ("Pioneer"), formerly known as Sara Vision, has completed assembly work on a platform of four thematic channels ready for Saudi Arabia’s broadcasting powers-that-be to give the green light for a service.

Ricky Ghai, CEO at APD, says the four channels are complete other than for some minor interstitial work which will be completed over the next few weeks, and all four are currently being beamed down digitally from ArabSat into General Instrument-supplied head-ends and onward to a number of country-wide test installations. While there is yet no confirmation from Riyadh, the Saudi capital, as to when the system will go live, all indications are that Al Rawaad will be on air this autumn, and there are surprises in store.

One such surprise is the quality of APD’s channels, which includes original production from Middle East Broadcast Centre (MBC) for the Kids Channel. Acquired programming from three major studios (Warner Bros, Sony and MGM) plus material from Polygram has been assembled into the four thematic strands: Cinema, Variety and Gold (a classic movie service) each of which reflect Ghai’s brief, which was to create channels with the best of international programming but which were sympathetic to Saudi Arabia’s cultural and religious sensitivities.

"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is unique," says Ghai, "and will remain unique for some considerable time to come. It is making decisions for its own people. As far as programming is concerned, some people have seen the Kingdom’s cultural sensitivities as a major hurdle. In my view that’s nonsense, because there are restrictions worldwide. Whether in Britain, where broadcasters have to observe the watershed, or in Scandinavia where programme is subject to all manner of restrictions and where in some countries you may not advertise on children’s programmes. I believe most of these so-called rules are consumer-led, not government-led. And it’s the same in the Kingdom. Programmers simply programme with these rules in mind."

Ghai also says that unlike the other Middle East platforms with ‘western’material (Orbit and Showtime) Al Rawaad is deliberately targeting Saudi Arabia specifically, not some sort of homogenised pan-Middle East viewer. "Pan-territory marketing is extremely difficult although as we move further afield we will adapt the channels, modifying them for local markets which could be Bahrain, the Emirates, wherever," he says.

Saudi Arabia has some three million TVHHs and an attractive $7,482 GDP per head. There are no cinemas and an unsophisticated video rental market. Consequently television plays an important part in a family’s home-based entertainment. "If we were purely interested in a commercial approach we would need to ask what percentage of existing consumers do we need to attract to create a business," says Ghai. "It’s not a very high figure. But we need to go a little broader and satisfy the basis upon which the franchise was granted to us. Our shareholders have given tremendous thought to these problems, but the existing DTH viewer in the Kingdom may not be the viewer that we want to address."

Moreover, Ghai says his programming challenges are much the same in Saudi Arabia as in Singapore or Malaysia. "One, is not to confront issues that are religious and to avoid explicit sexual matters. That’s very easily done. Look at the US networks, which are our key providers of programmes, and already work to cut out bad language and sex from their output. The Mid-West audience is in many ways just as conservative as ours in Saudi Arabia." He also argues that to try and "annihilate the opposition" would be self-destructive: "We are much more pragmatic in Saudi Arabia, where not every battle needs to be won outright. Our only hurdle is to prove this technology works, which we have done, and that the content we deliver in terms of quality, choice and cultural compliance is of the highest standard."

Great effort has been invested in creating an overall personality for the raft of channels, and also to deliberately tap into some of the natural essences of the Kingdom. The variety channel logo and interstitials, for example, are tinted green – Saudi Arabia’s national colour. It’s a small point, but shows the level of detail considered, while some of the programme promos have made imaginative use of Arabic script, highly regarded in Arabic countries and something frequently ignored by ‘western’ programmers.

The quality message has already hit home. "Already we have had strong interest from four neighbouring territories," says Ghai, adding that Pakistan has expressed a strong interest in the bouquet. "I have to ask will there be enough revenue from a Pakistan service to fund the extra residual rights that I will have to acquire from the studios? The reality is that most studios do not want to sell direct to Pakistan or Mauritius or wherever. For us to create some sort of ancillary revenue, whether its $500,000 of $5 million, the studios want that extra income. For this reason I know that studios want us to be a success, because they see us opening up an easy route to some very interesting markets. Culturally, three of our channels are perfect for them and they want them for their own MMDS system."

While Orbit and Showtime are already active in the DTH and cable arena, neither has yet launched a PPV service. Ghai says Al Rawaad sees PPV as being a key driver and it is actively negotiating PPV rights. In addition Ghai has a powerful argument in PPV’s favour. "One of the problems of PPV is accessing and marketing to homes," he points out. "It is difficult to run a similar operation five territories away, not to mention collecting cash on a pan-regional basis. Within Saudi Arabia we can market and collect revenues without problem. As there is no theatrical market in the Kingdom, [and] as there is no significant established video rental market in the Kingdom, these studios are losing out and I have asked two studios to look at foregoing their existing video business and tell me what loss [that would involve] over ten years. What we would like to do is to buy that option, bringing on PPV within four to five months of launch with very early release windows which in my view will kill off video piracy. The other advantage is that if we could get that window we could return to the studio a digitally mastered sub-titled copy for them to release into other video markets. They have not said no to date."