How do you wrestle a 300lb gorilla? Thats the question many people in this market have to ask when trying to make headway against the might of MBC Group. The answer is probably not to get too close This post has been authored by Christopher OHearn, GM of Emirates Media Measurement Company, which recently rolled out […]
How do you wrestle a 300lb gorilla? Thats the question many people in this market have to ask when trying to make headway against the might of MBC Group. The answer is probably not to get too close
This post has been authored by Christopher OHearn, GM of Emirates Media Measurement Company, which recently rolled out tview, the UAEs new television ratings and audience measurement system and the first in the Middle East.
The gorilla analogy applies as much to television as it does to real life (just in case you are ever faced with an angry gorilla).
In last months tview figures, Im looking at the figures for Arab expats, who make up around 25-30% of the UAE population and are a core audience for a channel like MBC, and a major target for advertisers.
As we can see from the tables, MBC dominates this sector. Its six entertainment channels, plus Arabiya, are all in the Top 10.
But the story is in the programmes. In my view, one of MBCs great talents is scheduling. As a multi-channel network, it realises viewers dont sit passively all night, so it juggles the audience from one place to another.
It doesnt show up on this Top 20 programmes chart over a month but Baaeaat Al Ward on MBC Drama is strong at 7 p.m. Then you can flip to a big serial such as Fatma on MBC1 at 8 p.m. The 9 p.m. slot belongs to Harem Al Soltan on Dubai TV so MBC saves its firepower and comes back at 10 p.m. usually on MBC4, where it has another strong strip of series throughout the year, or big entertainment shows such as The Voice, Arab Idol and so on.
So that is the gorilla? How do you go about stealing its bananas?
The Dubai TV approach is to go head on with something equally big such as Harem Al Soltan. That certainly works it gets them into the top 10 channels, although if you exclude that hour, Dubai TV would drop out. It is wrestling the gorilla, so it is high-risk unless you have the strength of a proven, bankable programme.
The other way is perhaps characterised by channels such as Fatafeat and National Geographic Abu Dhabi. Rather than take a bananas-or-bust approach, theyve found something else to snack on.
For large parts of the day, they pick up consistent ratings. Hour after hour, they get 1 and 2% share, which adds up to consistent performance, boosted by the occasional hit programme.
More importantly, from an advertising point of view, they can point to parts of the day, usually out of prime time, where they deliver certain types of audience nearly as well as the bigger channels and probably, at much lower rates.
This is one of the adjustments the market needs to make based on the people meter data. The granularity of the information means that advertisers can be more effective in targeting a specific audience at well-defined times of the day.
The question is just whether that target is watching the high-profile prime-time shows or something a bit less obvious.
