The removal of BeIN Sports channels from Etisalat e& platforms at the beginning of this month may have surprised consumers, particularly because the whole situation played out so quickly.
Statements moved swiftly from “discussions are ongoing regarding renewal” to customers being told that BeIN-supplied channels would be discontinued “due to commercial reasons, effective June 1”, shortly before the switch off occurred.
Consumers who currently access BeIN channels via du’s Home TV service, meanwhile, have been told that normal service will continue on the platform until the end of the month, but that no confirmation can be offered regarding the availability of the Qatari broadcaster’s channels after that date.
Sports fans need not sink into a pit of despair, however, as there continue to be alternative and legal means by which to access the channels directly from BeIN. On the flip side, there is a good chance that those who use illegal streams to access matches or channels for free have contributed to the breakdown of service provisions for others.
Beyond that, the switchover to streaming platforms tells us a great deal about the future of TV sport and channels in general.
A golden age of television this may be, as any fan of multi-series drama shows would concur, but it is also an ever more complicated place to legally consume content in.
And more broadly, this confirms that sport has become the rolling battleground for subscribers. This also underlines how the unbundling of content, which the streaming age has brought into being, could end up proving more expensive than the “one-payment, one platform” days of old satellite subscriptions.
This consumer, for one, yearns for the days of one-stop shops
Generalist football fans can now follow pretty much whichever league or player they want on streaming, but to do so comes at a rising cost.
Lionel Messi, for instance, will soon play for Inter Miami in the US, and if you are a fan of the Argentine World Cup winner, Major League Soccer is an Apple TV+ product.
His great rival, Cristiano Ronaldo, is famously plying his trade in the Saudi Pro League – Karim Benzema and other stars are expected to join the league this summer – whose matches are screened on Shahid.
Erling Haaland, the new face of the English Premier League, will still be on BeIN Sports channels next season, but those Etisalat by e& consumers will be required to sign up for another agreement.
Europe’s other top football leagues are spread across platforms, including the Italian Serie A, so too are other major sports. Cricket fans have become familiar with having to dart between platforms to keep up with the Indian Premier League, the World Test Championship or the Ashes.
It’s now a fragmented content world, with the slice-and-dice approach to TV rights constantly chopping sports rights into smaller chunks.
While there is value in that approach – in that consumers get to subscribe to what they want to watch – it also means your credit card bills and bank statements are likely to list a long schedule of small subscription payments.
It is also unlikely that many consumers know precisely how many dirhams they will spend each month to follow their favourite teams or competitions.
Compare this to the music industry today and to the satellite TV world of only a few years ago.
The provision of music has become thoroughly commoditised in the past decade, driving price down and increasing choice.
Many of us have grown used to paying a relatively low single fee to one provider – be that Anghami, Amazon, Apple or Spotify – for continued access to a catalogue of new releases and old recordings that is breathtakingly comprehensive.
In the days of single satellite TV providers operating in a market, that was also their promise – pay one fee, once a month for all the channels and content you could want to watch and some others that you don’t – even if the cost of their subscriptions was far greater than the fee you may pay to Spotify.
Indeed, the reason Netflix could keep adding new subscribers for years was that it offered comprehensive coverage at a low price and combined it with good original content. The gradual expansion of the competition, such as Amazon Prime or Disney+, has chipped away at Netflix’s first-to-market dominance, not least because sections of its back catalogue have migrated to other platforms.
Fourteen years ago, customers thought this was what they were getting when the Orbit Group and Showtime Arabia merged to create the region’s largest operator at the time.
Back then, executives described the merger, which created OSN, as bringing about a “one-stop shop” for consumers in a “defining moment” for TV entertainment.
However, the rights to the Premier League soon moved to another provider, Abu Dhabi Media. Three years later, BeIN claimed them and now a decade further on, the destination point of deplatforming from telecoms providers has been reached.
The future of sport on streaming is more of the same: rights packages cut up into ever smaller season passes held by multiple different entities competing for your attention and your credit card details.
This consumer, for one, yearns for the days of one-stop shops, where all the sports and entertainment programmes were housed in one place and available for one monthly payment, rather than that string of payments leaving my account every few weeks.
Sadly, the era of unbundled content is unlikely to be replaced by a new round of rebundling, because that’s just an old media solution to a new world reality.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Profile of RentSher
Started: October 2015 in India, November 2016 in UAE
Founders: Harsh Dhand; Vaibhav and Purvashi Doshi
Based: Bangalore, India and Dubai, UAE
Sector: Online rental marketplace
Size: 40 employees
Investment: $2 million
New process leads to panic among jobseekers
As a UAE-based travel agent who processes tourist visas from the Philippines, Jennifer Pacia Gado is fielding a lot of calls from concerned travellers just now. And they are all asking the same question.
“My clients are mostly Filipinos, and they [all want to know] about good conduct certificates,” says the 34-year-old Filipina, who has lived in the UAE for five years.
Ms Gado contacted the Philippines Embassy to get more information on the certificate so she can share it with her clients. She says many are worried about the process and associated costs – which could be as high as Dh500 to obtain and attest a good conduct certificate from the Philippines for jobseekers already living in the UAE.
“They are worried about this because when they arrive here without the NBI [National Bureau of Investigation] clearance, it is a hassle because it takes time,” she says.
“They need to go first to the embassy to apply for the application of the NBI clearance. After that they have go to the police station [in the UAE] for the fingerprints. And then they will apply for the special power of attorney so that someone can finish the process in the Philippines. So it is a long process and more expensive if you are doing it from here.”
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