Under the patronage of HE Eng. Bassem Al Rousan, Jordan’s Minister of ICT, the Fifth Annual Media and Telecommunications Convergence Conference, set to take place in Amman on the 2nd and 3rd of June, comes as the Arab World’s telecommunications and broadcast entertainment markets continue to experience strong growth in telecom subscribers and more competition, according to regional research house and conference organizer Arab Advisors Group, a member of the Arab Jordan Investment Bank Group.

By end of 2007, fixed line broadband penetration as a percent of total population ranged from 8% in Qatar to a mere 0.02% in Sudan in the Arab World. Qatar, UAE and Bahrain lead with 8%, 7.8% and 7% respectively. They are followed by Saudi Arabia (2.4%), Jordan (1.6%), Palestine (1.5%), Morocco (1.5%), Tunisia (1.1%), Lebanon (1%), Algeria (0.9%), Oman (0.7%), Egypt (0.6%), Mauritania (around 0.1%), Yemen (0.05%), Syria (0.04%) and Sudan (0.02%).

“While absolute broadband penetration in the Arab World may seem low by industrial countries standards, the effective household broadband penetration is much higher. This is related to higher number of people per household as well as line sharing. For example, a new Arab Advisors survey in Egypt revealed that 63.4% of Egyptian households that use the ADSL service, share their ADSL connection with neighbors. A massive 81.9% of households that use shared ADSL lines share them with more than three neighboring households.” Jawad J. Abbassi, Founder and General Manager of Arab Advisors Group noted. “Based on the survey results, the average number of households sharing one ADSL connection is 2.98. Multiplying the reported number of lines by this figure yields an estimate for households with ADSL connections in Egypt of 956,000 households by end of 2007, much higher than the number of accounts. While ADSL sharing is illegal in many countries and does negatively affect quality, the Arab Advisors Group believes that the practice is widespread in the Arab World. The silver lining is that more households are connected to broadband Internet services which would positively affect adoption of Internet-based services such as e-commerce, multimedia, user generated content and e-government services.” Mr. Abbassi added.

The Arab World’s Telecom and broadcast media boom will re-define the traditional boundaries that separated media and telecom companies and enable convergent services as operators chase revenues in non-traditional areas. Speakers and delegates at Arab Advisors’ Media and Telecommunications Convergence Conference 2008 will deliberate threats and opportunities inherent in this landscape change.

The Zain Group is the Main Sponsor of the Arab Advisors’ Fifth Annual Media and Telecommunications Convergence Conference 2008. Zain (formerly known as MTC) is the pioneer of mobile telecommunications in the Middle East and now a major player on the African continent. Today, the Zain Group is a leading wireless services provider and the 4th largest telecommunications company in the world in terms of geographic presence with a footprint in 7 Middle Eastern and 14 sub-Saharan countries, providing mobile voice and data services to over 45.7 million active individual and business customers. The company’s mobile telecommunications operations in Ghana will begin later in 2008.

The annual conference also received the support and sponsorship from Jawwal (Palestine), ESKADENIA Software (Jordan), GLOBITEL (Jordan), QUALCOMM, SIGNAL Communications - PRIMUSTEL (Jordan), Ericsson, Orange (Jordan), Greenpacket Networks (Bahrain) and Optimiza.

38 visionary executives and industry leaders will address the conference. Close to 400 delegates from 86 different companies already confirmed their attendance. As part of its vision to advance the knowledge and technology industries in the Arab World, the Arab Advisors Group has waived the delegate fees for telecom and broadcast operators. As for paying delegates, they receive their choice of Arab Advisors Group reports for the same value of the registration fees.

The Fifth Annual Media and Telecommunications Convergence Conference 2008 will take place at the Four Seasons Hotel in Amman on June 2&3 2008 with the backing of 10 global and regional operators and companies. Furthermore, 16 global and regional companies will also be exhibiting at the conference.

For more details and Online Registration please visit the conference web site.

In a regional first, OMD Digital, a company of the Omnicom Media Group, has successfully launched an in-game advertising campaign targeting the highly sought-after youth market in Saudi Arabia. This new offering from OMD Digital is the latest in its rapidly expanding portfolio of digital advertising services.

Thanks to the ground-breaking initiative, companies now have the opportunity to promote their brands in popular games through pre-defined billboards, such as virtual banners, street signs and other outdoor advertising spaces, adding a touch of reality to virtual worlds.

For its initial project, OMD Digital bought 250,000 impressions over two months in Saudi homes, across major X-Box and PC titles, including Burnout (X-Box 360), Guitar Hero (PC and X-Box 360), Tony Hawk’s Wasteland (PC and X Box 360), NFS Pro Street (PC and X-Box 360), Pro Evolution Soccer (PC and X-Box 360). The ads are downloaded onto new-generation game consoles and PCs linked to the Internet.

This is the first time this technology has been deployed in the region and in doing so, OMD Digital has created a welcome new revenue stream for game developers who face high levels of piracy in the Middle East.

“This is a hugely exciting new adventure,” commented Dimitri Metaxas, group director of OMD Digital. “Gaming is a very significant hobby for the Saudi youth, both males and females, and as such presents vast opportunities for brands to play a role in this activity and capitalize on their target audience’s interest. We are thrilled to be the first agency to develop such an operation in the Arab world.” He added that in-gaming also provides a great platform for clients who want to differentiate themselves from their competition.

Another part of the new offering is mobile advertising.  With record-high penetration levels and a large proportion of handsets in the region featuring the latest technologies, mobile phones are a valuable media channel for advertisers. OMD Digital is working on services covering mobile search, mobile social networking and location-based services.

To manage this foray into in-gaming and mobile advertising, OMD Digital has recruited Philip Schilling as Director of Planning. He has worked in Japan, USA, Belgium, Germany and Dubai, bringing with him a valuable online and digital business experience. Demonstrating his innovation credentials, Schilling co-founded a company in Munich, the first online music download store before iTunes was set up.

“Philip adds yet another string to our bow,” Metaxas explained. “Both on the personal and technical level, he fits very well with our team and our client portfolio. He also comes at a time when Web 2.0 is seriously taking hold in the region with advertisers looking for more and more innovative solutions.”

“There can be no doubt that the future is digital and that the region is set on an exciting course,” added Schilling. “The Middle East is fast closing the gap with the West and it’s a privilege to be a part of this. I’m particularly looking forward to working with the team at OMD Digital, who have amply demonstrated their ability to innovate and raise the bar here.”

This couldn’t have more fully illustrated than by OMD Digital’s success at the recent Dubai Lynx Awards, winning two awards, including one gold, for its work on the Barclays Bank and Pepsi accounts in the Best Use of the Internet/New Media category.

The Gulf, a new international weekly business magazine covering the six countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), made its debut on 10th of May.
 
Published by the international division of the Bahrain-based Al Hilal Group, The Gulf aims to fill a gap in the market for authoritative reporting and commentary on the Gulf region, focusing on business, financial and economic developments.  “We will be providing high-quality analysis, insight, opinion and data on the core markets of the Middle East,” editor Digby Lidstone said. “We are combining a weekly magazine with online news and information resources. The Gulf is an essential source of business intelligence for anyone with an interest in this dynamic region.” Lidstone was formerly the features editor of the London-based weekly Middle East Economic Digest (MEED).

The magazine has contributors in Asia, the Far East, Europe and North America. “We have also recruited an experienced international editorial team from around the world who are based in Bahrain giving the magazine a solid and professional base of reporting and analysis,” commented Abdullah Jonathan Wallace, The Gulf’s publishing director. “Given Al Hilal’s 30-year history as a pan-Arab publishing house based in Bahrain, we are drawing on our core competencies and contacts to provide insight and analysis on the booming markets of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait in particular, which have been traditionally under-reported elsewhere,” he said.

Wallace, who was the owner and editor-in-chief of MEED for 30 years, has put together a controlled circulation base of over 11,000, two-thirds in the GCC.  “We have drawn on Al Hilal’s huge databank of executives in all areas of industry, government, finance and commerce throughout the region. We shall be circulating copies in a rotating pattern, offering free copies for a month and then soliciting paid subscriptions.  Advertisers are guaranteed a weekly circulation of well over 5,500 copies,” Wallace added.

The Gulf will also be available on bookstalls throughout the GCC and in key cities elsewhere such as London, Paris, New York, Singapore, Beijing and Hong Kong.  However, only subscribers will have privileged access to the magazine’s online news portal: www.thegulfonline.com.

The first, 52-page, issue majors on the reality of the Gulf’s nuclear ambitions.  Other leading stories include the rise of Abu Dhabi, the creeping threat of inflation and growing speculation in the property market.

The Gulf is the latest magazine in a stable of titles that includes: the daily Akhbar Al Khaleej and the Gulf Daily News; Gulf Weekly; Oil & Gas News; Arabian Knight; Arabian Lady; Clientele; Gulf Construction; Gulf Industry; Middle East Medical, Oil & Gas News and Travel & Tourism News.

“Our portal tradearabia.com is now regarded as one of the region’s best for business news and information and is the repository of Al Hilal Group’s editorial knowledge going back to the year 2000,” said Ronnie Middleton, Al Hilal’s Managing Director. “Adding The Gulf to our output will strengthen and develop both tradearabia.com and all our other titles.”

Over the last 30 years, Al Hilal Group has expanded and diversified into a range of ancillary activities.  These include Hilal Computers (an IT solutions provider); Hilal Conferences & Exhibitions.