Intigral’s Jawwy TV, a leading homegrown OTT, continues to innovate to transform the MENA entertainment landscape
Online entertainment reached new heights in 2020, a year that drastically limited conventional entertainment sectors, including sporting events, cinemas, and theatres. Buoyed by higher demand throughout periods of protracted lockdowns and underpinned by the proliferation of high-speed connectivity, OTT subscriptions in the MENA region ballooned to 4.6 million at the end of 2020, a 35% year on year growth, according to industry analysts Ovum.
These trends have channeled consumption behaviors away from traditional home entertainment and accelerated the need for digital innovation on online entertainment platforms. In light of this shift, customers have been able to redefine their content consumption with more choice than ever before.
OTT platforms have harnessed modern cloud technologies behind the scenes to support the continued expansion of content catalogs whilst seamlessly scaling delivery networks to a growing customer base. Additionally, to support rapidly changing customer behavior, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning enables real-time analysis of consumers’ actions and viewing preferences to customize each experience and deepen customer engagement.
OTT platforms must be quick and agile to adopt the latest innovative solutions and keep pace with the shifting dynamics in such a competitive industry. As such, Intigral, a leading provider of digital entertainment and sports in the MENA region, adopts a strategy centered around innovation, seeking to reimagine cordless entertainment and deliver a rewarding viewing experience for audiences in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and beyond.
Aggregation model
As a subsidiary of the Saudi Telecommunications Company (stc), Intigral aligns its direction with the Saudi Vision 2030 and its ambition to enhance the quality of life through Media, Entertainment, and emerging digital society. Intigral’s flagship OTT platform, Jawwy TV, provides high-quality streaming services directly to individual users, as well as through B2B partnerships with regional telecoms operators.
Jawwy TV tapped into the regional OTT market back in 2018, introducing a unique combination of both content aggregation, including linear TV and on-demand content, coupled with its own original in-house production. This hybrid operating model, bringing together both linear and on-demand viewing, is underpinned by an advanced cloud-based delivery platform driving content ingestion, editorial curation, user interface (UI) development, and distribution.
The award-winning platform utilizes a range of market leading solutions to offer tech-savvy MENA consumers high quality online entertainment in a feature rich yet simple and accessible user experience.
Innovative features
Jawwy TV’s content library and linear TV selection (25,000+ on-demand assets, 160+ free and premium channels) are sourced through deals with leading regional and global entertainment players, including OSN, Fox, and Starzplay. This is in addition to Jawwy TV’s investment in original productions featuring both new and established local talent. The service offers subscribers various viewing options from traditional set-top box viewing on the bespoke 4K device at home, directly through Smart TVs via its own Android TV App or Smart TV manufacturer-specific apps, popular web browsers, etc., mobile devices whilst on-the-go. This experience is further enhanced with the ability to download to devices for offline viewing or cast to large screens with Google Chromecast or Apple Airplay connectivity.
To support new user habits, Jawwy TV allows family sharing from different user profiles, parental controls, and the ability to both rewind and start over live TV.
In parallel, technological innovation has been instrumental to supporting Jawwy TV’s backend operations and viewing experience, delivering uninterrupted streaming across Intigral’s innovative Content Delivery Networks (CDN) systems. Deployed on an intricate cloud-based architecture, Jawwy TV’s content is delivered, ensuring high availability and top-quality streaming. This is made possible by employing avant-garde coding formats to maintain high stream performance whilst realizing up to a 50% reduction in data consumption than traditional OTT services.
Geared for Growth!
Jawwy TV is available in five (5) markets across the GCC and Egypt, and will be expanding its presence throughout North Africa and the Levant region during 2021.
With MENA OTT subscriptions forecast to grow by 20% CAGR to 11.2 million by 2025, the trend towards viewing and consuming content through OTT seems inevitable and irreversible. And as the exploding popularity of OTT in the region appears to be a precursor to a longer-term shift in-home (and on-the-go) entertainment consumption habits, Intigral remains at the forefront in developing leading-edge solutions, adopting and deploying new and innovative features to fulfill its vision of redefining the OTT entertainment experience throughout the MENA region.
