Is tv and video content material nonetheless related to at this time’s Saudi customers?
Saudi Arabia’s leisure and media market represents a promising and unprecedented alternative for development and creativity. The E&M {industry} is already important to nationwide tradition and financial diversification.
Furthermore, there may be an ongoing means of change inside Saudi E&M, with the TV present process transformation and the over-the-top video market increasing quick, assisted partly by new applied sciences.
For TV and video gamers, now’s the time to grab the second by means of strong content material methods, omnichannel viewing choices, engaging worth propositions for advertisers and cross-industry synergies to achieve entry to new audiences.
What makes Saudi E&M so interesting is its distinctiveness. Even throughout the context of world media development and a renaissance in TV high quality and cultural worth, the Kingdom stands out due to its subtle and engaged viewers.
The nation has excessive media consumption ranges, notably vibrant TV and OTT markets and intensive social media use. Additionally, Saudis are always linked.
Favorable media ecosystem
Smartphone market penetration is 98.2 p.c, above the worldwide common of 84 p.c. Likewise, Web penetration is 97.9 p.c, whereas the worldwide common is 62.5 p.c. Considerably for TV and video gamers, there may be nonetheless ample room for promoting to develop.
TV dominates the Saudi video market. It delivers a mass viewers that crosses age and gender demographics, particularly throughout Ramadan, and round 50 p.c of {industry} revenues. In response to market analysis agency Ipsos, Saudi TV viewers spent a median of 5.1 hours per day watching TV in 2021 and 2020, in comparison with 4.5 hours in 2019.
The Kingdom additionally has a fast-growing viewers for OTT movies. Digital applied sciences enable Saudi customers to personalize and management what they watch. Because of this, the OTT outlook within the Kingdom is extra favorable than regional and international developments, in line with PwC, with revenues projected to develop at an 11.9 p.c compound annual development fee from 2019 by means of 2025, in comparison with anticipated development within the Center East and North Africa of 10.4 p.c.
As well as, Saudis spend a median of three hours per day on social media, which explains why they’ve grow to be integral components of broadcasters’ content material methods.
As an illustration, MBC Group, the Kingdom’s main media firm, is actively current on Fb, Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram — recording a 20 p.c CAGR between 2019 and 2021 and rising additional.
Given the dynamism within the Saudi TV and video market, gamers ought to take into account 4 strikes.
Essence of localization
First, TV and video gamers can create a robust content material technique tailor-made to the tastes and preferences of native audiences. Native and regional content material stays an all-time favourite, whether or not delivered as scripted collection or different native leisure, sports activities and social programming — it at all times succeeds.
That is evident in Gulf sitcoms like Man Huwa Waladna, which premiered throughout Ramadan 2022, and Studio 22, which had been the top-rated reveals in 2022 to the tip of Might.
Second, the broadcasters can speed up their efforts to supply omnichannel viewing experiences, permitting customers to comply with their favourite content material throughout platforms.
As an illustration, top-rated TV reveals, equivalent to Ramez Film Star, which options pranks, are among the many most-played movies on MBC’s Shahid streaming platform, which offers advertising-based video on demand. As well as, content material migrating from social media also can enhance viewers. For instance, Dr. Money, a brief on-line present providing monetary ideas, ranked among the many Kingdom’s high 15 reveals in 2021. Third, TV and video gamers can provide advertisers a extra engaging worth proposition. The Kingdom’s promoting spending per capita is decrease than international benchmarks. They’ll appeal to advertisers by means of various and fewer intrusive promoting, equivalent to paid content material partnerships and model integration.
For instance, Oppo, the Chinese language client electronics and cellular communications firm, efficiently embedded a advertising and marketing and product placement marketing campaign within the Arabic model of the worldwide actuality competitors present The Masked Singer.
Advantages of digitalization
Digitalization is significant to the promoting market because it permits them to know viewers in a method conventional metrics don’t enable. As well as, strong client intelligence and analytics will grow to be the norm because of fiber optics and 5G networks and using synthetic intelligence in advice algorithms on VOD platforms, all of which implies that advertisers and broadcasters can meet viewers’ expectations repeatedly.
Fourth, these content material distributors ought to take into account exploiting cross-industry synergies to search out new audiences and increase and differentiate their content material choices.
MBC’s Shahid platform provides a notable instance. As of the primary quarter of 2022, a button for the Shahid TV app has been constructed into 1.5 million good TV remotes, together with manufacturers equivalent to Samsung, Hisense, Haier, Panasonic and Changhong.
Within the coming years, Saudi customers will need media experiences related to their pursuits and desires, even because the Saudi TV and video market will play a big function in nationwide cultural growth.
These forces, mixed with technological advances, elevated competitors and new promoting merchandise, present agile and progressive alternatives, which collaborative TV and video gamers can seize.
• Karim Daoud is senior government adviser with Technique & Center East, a part of the PwC community.
• Nadim Samara is Chief Working Officer of MBC Media Options.
Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers on this part are their very own and don’t essentially mirror Arab Information’ standpoint
