UAE : the new frontier of on line content creation

A couple of weeks ago was announced that Google was working together with Sony, Logitech and other blue chips on a project under the name of GoogleTV. The new device will be powered by Android 1.5 and will "bring the Web into the living room through a new generation of televisions and set-top boxes"

Now this is by far not the first time that somebody is trying to bring the Web to the living room, but we also know that when Google decides to go towards one direction, they might be in beta for quite some time, but they will get there; furthermore as Google is the largest advertising agency on the planet there are no doubts that this move is both strategic and inevitable.

Bringing the Web on our TV sets is clearly a move generated not only by the efforts of generating more ad revenues but also a sign of the big failure of mainstream content producers and broadcasters that have "ignored " the new medium and its potentials.

Mainstream producers have experienced a constant loss of revenues due to the raise of file sharing and broadband's growth and instead of rethinking their business models they have focused their efforts in developing new controlled distribution models that could contain their losses. This is exactly the same mistake that the music industry made through the DRM ( Digital Rights Management ) model: it did not work because on a technology point of view there is always a " way around ", and once this way around is of public domain the copy protection model becomes immediately obsolete.

TV is also responsible for generating tremendously "lousy" content in a run to provide quantity and hardly never quality. The reduced costs of satellite bandwidth together with the developments of highly performing compression codecs have sparked the growth of hundreds of satellite channels; the quality of content in these channels is known to everybody with a satellite decoder.

Not long ago, the ownership of a Satellite TV channel was seen as a political and financial statement, but not anymore; the recent merge of Orbit and Showtime is another sign of the failure of the traditional model because the running costs surpassed largely the potential revenues. It is also my strong conviction that this failed model is not only a consequence of the reduced audience ( migrated on line) but also due of the failure in delivering quality content.

The Middle East has been constantly flooded with western content, mostly subtitled and poorly edited to fit the local cultural environments; media buyers never doubted that local markets will die to watch The Sopranos or Desperate Housewives, but also never hesitate in considering Dr Phil, Oprah or The Bold and the Beautiful as equally appealing products. Now quality series such as the Sopranos do have an international appeal due to its high standards in the story-line and production elements, but I still need to be convinced that local audiences are still craving for The Bold and the Beautiful.

The late nineties have also witnessed the spread of the formats where the " one size fits all " rule developed monsters such as the Middle Eastern version of Big Brother and similar decontextualized amenities. Although some of these productions were initially interesting on a social point of view they did not stand one chance compared to what I can access browsing YouTube in any given day.

Digital multi channel bouquets packages are dead, and if I subscribe to one of any given offer is simply because I am interested in "one" product, whatever that is, a sport event, a documentary or a cartoon channel whose content I cannot retrieve (still) online.

So legions of user are migrating to "random access" virtual places where content is available at any time, for free; mainstream is counter attacking by implementing 3D in any possible sauce, but this will only slow down the inevitable death of its model.

So if the future is online and Google wants to "bring the Web into the living room through a new generation of televisions and set-top boxes", what is going to happen in the Middle East where, according to many TV executives I know, " Change in this part of the globe happens very, very slowly.. "? Well, as a start, it is very entertaining to witness the "digital media convergence" plans of various Middle Eastern broadcasters that believe that attaching a Facebook page and a twitter feed to individual production will do the trick; number one it does not do the trick because digital convergence it's not at all that easy, and number two because the key word for these kind of operation is "conversation" and the only conversation Arab broadcasters are interested into are the ones with advertisers.

The game is much more complicated than this because listening is not a technique you can learn overnight and especially after decades of one way conversations such as "we know better what content you will like, we are the experts after all.. " it is even more tricky.

On the other hand I do strongly believe in a new media renaissance originated also from this part of the world; after decades of importing media goods as if they were commodities like cereals or pharmaceutical products the times has come to start exporting locally generated media contents online and towards the outer world. The internet is offering many opportunities, and couple this with the fast growing generation of young media savvy consumer - producers, it is not a blasphemy to predict that many interesting production will flourish from the Middle East and North Africa.

If we get a closer look at the internet penetration numbers ( Internet World Stats) in the Region we will understand that the UAE is at the top regardless the still costly internet access; furthermore the UAE has one of the strongest expat community in the Region making it the perfect ground for original stories to be generated and exported. If we look at the online social media scene in the UAE we will also be positively surprised by the numbers and depth of the conversations taking place every day; sooner than later one of these conversations will become a catalyst for a web series, a short movie, or a full feature film.

If mainstream media in the Region will still perceive all this simply as user generated content, produced by amateurs for amateurs without embracing the change, it will result into another nail in their coffin.

The UAE as the new frontier for on line content creation? Yes, why not? The signs are all there.


Above, Fujairah hills.