cover story_cover story 25/02/2016 18:37 Page 1
New satellites, new
channels, and plenty of
new opportunities: The
political problems in the
region are seemingly
never-ending, but TV
steams ahead, with extra
creativity, fresh
entertainment and growth
firmly in mind, reports
Chris Forrester.
arely two years ago, a new
satellite service, YahLive, was
struggling to fill its capacity.
The rationale at the time was that the
satellite would be used to deliver an
all-HDTV platform to viewers across
the MENA region. It was not
successful. But today, following an
October 2015 re-launch, the satellite
has found an enthusiastic audience in
Farsi and Kurdish-speaking audiences
in the wider region.
YahLive, itself a joint-venture between
Abu Dhabi-based YahSat (Al Yah Satellite)
and Luxembourg’s SES, had launched in
2011 and despite all manner of incentives –
and an eventual change of
CEO – a change of direction
was badly needed. YahLive
operates from 52.5° East,
and well away from the
MENA’s two wellestablished ‘hot spot’s’
operated by Nilesat and
Arabsat. At the time of
writing, the project’s success
is abundantly clear: Some
210 channels are now on air.
A recent batch of 43
channels was launched targeting the
Maghreb region (in conjunction with the
Sahli Media Group), and in particular
focusing on Algeria.
EXPANSION. CEO Sami Boustany happily
says that the satellite is now more or less
full, and expansion is on the cards.
“Remember we have three beams including
the European beam and the satellite is
wonderfully cross-connected across all of the
payloads. Right now we are close to
maximum capacity and a very high fill-rate.
B
16 EUROMEDIA
our growth strategy, and meet
clients’ demand,” adds
Boustany.
This sort of fresh thinking is
common right across the MENA
region, where – by any measure
– the broadcasting scene is
improving, and Boustany is
intending to seek out these new
markets. Of course, he is not alone.
GUARANTEED. Not a million miles from
Abu Dhabi is Qatar’s Es’HailSat and its CEO
Ali Al Kuwari also has additional hardware
going into space for what he sees as
guaranteed expansion. Al Kuwari says that
his Es’hail-2, currently being manufactured
by Mitsubishi Electric Company (MELCO) in
Japan, cleared its Critical Design Review
(CDR) in August 2015. “Passing the CDR
validated that Es’hail-2 will meet our
requirements and perform as expected for
“We are close to
maximum capacity and
a very high fill-rate.”
- Sami Boustany,
YahLive
We already have an agreement in place
with one of our parent partners, SES, for
additional capacity at the orbital slot (see
box). Monaco-Sat gives us a collaboration
deal on capacity for our expansion plan.”
“Monaco-Sat is at 52.5 East and so the
same dishes can see our satellite and
Monaco-Sat. This gives us redundancy, as
well as expansion capacity. No satellite
operator wants to be 100 per cent full. We
all like having some expansion capacity and
this we now have. It means we can continue