The region’s pay-TV provider OSN has unveiled a major overhaul of its pricing and packaging as it casts the net wider to reach more cost-conscious audiences. It will mean that subscription to its basket of channels starts from Dh79.
This is the first step in a much wider set of changes, which will also result in OSN expanding the scope of its digital on-the-go content delivery and consumption. These are to be in place by summer.
With the concerted moves, OSN is clearly taking aim at the competition — represented by the likes of Netflix and regional providers — who are inducing audiences to convert from traditional satellite and cable formats to viewing content on the web.
“We have to recognise that not everyone can afford to pay very high prices, and we need to adapt our offerings,” said Martin Stewart, who took over as CEO last year and has been scripting the current round of changes. “This will allow us to reach millions who previously would have found it difficult to enjoy the services we offer.
“There were two pressing things we needed to fix right away. OSN was the market leader for 20 odd years in various guises — but we have to adapt to the change brought on by competition.
“We are the home of premium entertainment... we still are. What we had to do is provide a service for everyone, wherever and however they want to watch. People want to be in control on how much they pay for it.”
And behind the scenes, OSN has been working on its alliances with global TV content providers, to ensure it remains the first platform of choice in the Middle East and North Africa territory. It has just announced the extension of a deal with Disney, which would give it first dibs to Marvel blockbusters and a lot more besides. Stewart declined to mention the tenor of the Disney deal.
According to Stewart, “Over the last six to 12 months, we have locked down all of the major deals we wanted to renew. We have come out of the intense negotiations ready for the pricing and packaging launch, thus exploiting the content rights we bought. There is a lot of competition out there... no point in hiding from that. we had to do certain things in order to try and hit the targets.
And has the cost of sourcing content gone up significantly?
“I’ve been in this business for 22 years and only three contracts went down [during renewals]. The truism of our business is that content gets more expensive... because there are always new platforms, new distribution methodologies, new ways or packaging the content. The costs we are paying today [are] a function of people’s belief in the longer term potential of these markets.”
The next step now that the pricing and content sourcing part is done revolves around the platforms on which content is delivered.
“The fact that we have a DTH [direct-to-home] platform is a great thing; we will continue to develop that,” said Stewart. “But as a content company, we need to be able to deliver in any way they want. whichever screen, whichever device it may be.”
This is where the digital content delivery comes in.
“We have two products — OSN Play is the perfect companion service to our main in-home entertainment. It will allow you to take your OSN service anywhere... in effect, you will have OSN in your pocket.
“With OSN Play, what we have now is only a subset — 20 linear channels and on-demand products. We aim to double the capacity available on that; this way we get much closer to replicating the service you get at home while on the go.”
“Our second product — GO Online TV [a stand-alone OTT subscription service] — is being revamped and we will be able to offer skinny bundles [cheaper/smaller packages] or premium. It would be strange if we didn’t evolve to have the ability to offer the same service via OTT that we deliver via DTH or cable. At the back-end of the year, we will have new hardware, both on OTT and DTH.”
The CEO said OSN packages will continue to be only via subscription. On whether digital-only subscribers will have more flexibility in deciding the membership period, Stewart said: “Flexibility is around making sure you choose a package that suits you. That way you are more likely to enjoy it and stay with us. Greater flexibility will be seen in the OTT services from summer, where we can offer options on payment methodology and payment length.”