OSN and Huawei sign new strategic IPTV partnership

OSN, the region’s leading entertainment network, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Huawei, a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices, to deliver a turnkey IPTV solution which enables telecom operators to offer a state-of-the-art TV experience alongside premium content.

This new collaboration with Huawei forms part of OSN’s digitisation strategy to enhance product delivery, and ensure more potential OSN customers have access to the best TV experiences, by utilising innovative technology. The  partnership brings together OSN’s wide array of entertainment content and Huawei’s world-class Video Cloud Solution, a regional first as the best of premium content and the best of platform technology are combined in one single end-to-end solution.  

OSN’s premium channels offer viewers the broadest choice of TV entertainment with the most popular series, sports and the best of Hollywood, Bollywood and Arabic movies. In addition to this, OSN offers an exceptional Video On Demand (VOD) service, OSN Play, which encompasses 30,000 hours of content giving customers an excellent viewing experience anytime, anywhere and on any device, and all of this will be even more accessible through Huawei’s Video Cloud Solution.

Huawei’s Video Cloud Solution - which currently serves more than 140 million subscribers worldwide - enables best user experience by optimizing interactivity as fast as 0.5 seconds for channel zapping, 0.7 seconds for user interface response and 0.9 seconds for video on demand loading. It also supports Ultra High Definition @60 frame per second streaming, High Dynamic Range imaging and H.265 compressed video and features seamless multi-screen interaction. In addition, the solution is equipped with the innovative “Presentation Hub Management System” which will shorten user interface adaptation from months to just minutes. Due to the developed features in the solution - like big data, dashboard system, recommendation engine, and quality of experience management system - end users and telcos will benefit from precise marketing and smart maintenance and operation.

Neil Martin, Chief Commercial Officer from OSN said: “We are excited to join forces with Huawei and we believe that this partnership will help us to provide telecom operators, and ultimately our customers, with the full complement of our world-class entertainment in a convenient and efficient way. MENA telecom operators will have access to an agile end-to-end IPTV solution, composed of Huawei’s IPTV technology and OSN’s wide range of linear and on demand content. This partnership will enable telecom operators to deliver IPTV services to market faster, and capitalise on opportunities to maximise revenues as they acquire subscribers.  We expect this solution to become an engine of growth for OSN, Huawei and the wider broadcast industry in this region as connectivity improves across the region.”

This partnership comes at a time when the video market in the Middle East is growing, with telecom operators playing an increasingly important role in content delivery. According to a report by EY1, MENA IPTV homes are projected to grow by 11% annually over the next few years, nearly three times as fast as satellite homes. Meeting the growing demand for premium and high-quality content via IPTV is therefore a priority for operators in the region as they seek to address customer demand, improve loyalty through triple-play offers (telephone, broadband and TV services), and drive incremental revenue.

Sun Xiaofeng, VP of Huawei Middle East, added, “We are pleased to collaborate with OSN and we look forward to working together to bring the best content and viewing experiences to audiences in this region. The cloud offering to telecom operators will extremely minimize their risks and barriers of launching their own IPTV services as well as shorten the time to market by 80%. We hope this MoU will strengthen the digital video ecosystem in the region and we look forward to continuing to grow this industry in the Middle East.”