The 2015 edition of the ASBU BroadcastPro Selevision Summit and Awards took place on November 10 at Habtoor Grand in Dubai. The full-day programme featured a summit with four panel discussions and a gala awards evening. The awards rewarded broadcast specialists from the MENA broadcast industry in both traditional and new media space. We had 13 awards […]
The 2015 edition of the ASBU BroadcastPro Selevision Summit and Awards took place on November 10 at Habtoor Grand in Dubai. The full-day programme featured a summit with four panel discussions and a gala awards evening.
The awards rewarded broadcast specialists from the MENA broadcast industry in both traditional and new media space. We had 13 awards in creative and technical categories as well as eight awards by our title sponsor Selevision to recognise the contribution of some of the key industry players.
Like every year, this year too BroadcastPro ME put together a very engaging agenda featuring some of the most pertinent topics relevant to the ever-changing broadcast space. More than 290 guests attended the summit and the gala awards was attended by 360 people this year. The event provided a perfect platform for networking and an opportunity to hear industry leaders at the summit.
Mohamed Abuagla, Executive Director of Technology & Operations (CIO/CTO), Al Jazeera Media Network, opened the summit with his keynote speech.
The first panel of the day was the production panel moderated by Chris OHearn, General Manager, Tview, Emirates Media Measurement Company.
The panel discussed the relevance of large in-house production facilities in major broadcast organisations and the whether broadcasters can afford to spin-off their production operations. There was a debate on scripted versus un-scripted shows and how each contributes to the broadcast ecosystem.
A very interesting topic was about the ideal place to produce content UAE, Lebanon, Egypt and does this impact the decision to work in-house or go with independents and what place do independents have in the ecosystem?
The second panel of the day addressed OTT and how it is shaping up in the region. The role of YouTube in defining OTT in the region and whether it makes business sense to create content only for OTT platforms, was also discussed. How traditional broadcasters are facing up to the OTT challenge or whether it is a challenge or a complementary service? All these and more were the hot topics of the day.
The CTO panel this year focused on cloud, IP and coping with new technologies.
The panel addressed concerns such as the role of todays CTO and what makes an ideal CTO and wherein lies the future of television?
The final panel discussion of the day was the CEO panel which discussed the direction in which pay TV and FTA are headed in the region. Looking at some of the recent developments in the region, the panellists discussed if pay-TV is the future of free-to-air TV in the Middle East. The debate continued on perhaps the most discussed topic of piracy in the region. Exclusive statistics, a look at how piracy has evolved with OTT and how the MENA TV industry is fighting back were a part of the discussion.
The awards evening started with BroadcastPro MEs sister publication SatellitePro ME awards. The first award of the evening was Satellite Operator of the Year which was given to Eutelsat. The second satellite award was for Outstanding Achievement in Satellite Services had two winners Yahlive and North Telecom.
The broadcast award winners are:
Best MCN Diwan Videos and UTURN
MENA OTT Trendsetter beIN Sports Connect
Broadcast Project of the Year OSN for its newly built network operations centre
Innovative production of the Year Barajoun Entertainment for their upcoming release Bilal
Long-form Production of the Year The Goldmine Films for Rabbi Zidni Ilma
ASBU BroadcastPro ME 2015 Innovative Project Award Amagi Media Labs.
MENA Broadcast Trendsetter Al Jazeera Media Network
Best Telco/Broadcast Initiative Du View
2015 MENA Systems Integrator Tek Signals
Special Recognition Award Al Rayyan TV
CTO of the Year Mohamed Abuagla, Executive Director CIO/CTO of the Technology and Operations Division at Al Jazeera Media Network
