‘Golden age’ of TV viewing in region attributed to on-the-go viewers

People are watching more television than ever, according to Gerhard Zeiler, the president of Turner Broadcasting System International. Jaime Puebla / The National

The rise in viewers of TV via a variety of devices such as smartphones and tablets is helping to create what media executives are calling a golden age of TV viewership.

On average people in the UAE watch 20 hours a week of television, while in Saudi Arabia it is 25 hours according to the management consultancy Strategy&.

Pay TV is set to grow at 10 per cent per year, and on-demand television is on track to grow by 20 per cent in the region.

“TV is not only not dead, it is the golden age of television,” said Gerhard Zeiler, the president of Turner Broadcasting System International. “People are watching more television than ever, on-demand viewing is growing significantly. People have more time, more devices.”

Turner Broadcasting which owns CNN and Cartoon Networks and has partnered with Mubadala Development to create products for children, is focusing on building its brand in the region, especially in the digital sector where the Middle East is "ahead of the curve", said Mr Zeiler. "Watching, consuming news will be mostly digital," he said. "You have to have the product and brands so that people always go to your site and app."

The two big shifts in television over the past few years for content producers is the proliferation of programmes, as well as the ability to watch television on multiple devices.

“As a content producer and aggregator, you need to offer more products than 20 years ago,” said Mr Zeiler. “Back then if you had one big channel and one small channel, you didn’t even need to own a lot of programmes to broadcast.”

Winning control of the intellectual property to broadcast the content on a variety of platforms is key today to secure the right advertising, as is creating locally produced content.

“We know if we want to be successful in the future, we have to invest locally. It is the foundation of success in the future. We need to invest here now, especially in the kids’ sector,” said Mr Zeiler.

The demise of television still dominates conversations about the sector, but the belief is misguided, say industry players. Viewership figures are misconceived in 99 per cent of the markets said JB Perrette, the president of Discovery Networks International.

“People see audience figures and ratings which still measures one screen. The TV screen is still the biggest by far, but we are producing content for a number of screens,” said Mr Perrette.

Norway is one of the few markets that measures the viewership of television on devices such as tablets and mobiles. Previously, it was thought that TV viewership in Norway was down 6 per cent, but within the first two months of measuring the second screen, viewing figures were up 14 per cent.

“This death of TV content is a complete misnomer – this is the golden age,” said Mr Perrette.

“The TV experience has been more of a one-dimensional experience for a long time. We are still in the phase of two-dimensional experience with the content and the audience.”

Many broadcasters have integrated live Twitter feeds into their programmes as well as real-time interaction via apps and Facebook pages to engage users with shows while they play with their smartphones or tablets. Regionally, this is picking up, but traditional viewing still dominates.

“There have been shifts in the way television content is being consumed,” said Jayant Bhargava, the vice president of the management consultancy Strategy&. “There is a habit of family viewing which makes linear TV more resilient in this part of the world.”

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