Text messaging is taking Arab television by storm, creating a new synergy between two of the region’s fastest growing industries.

From the outside, it is nothing but another faded facade lost in a row of balconied apartment buildings that line the bustling strip of Beirut's Mazraa neighborhood. But on the ground floor of this unembellished concrete residence, instead of a vegetable shop, snack bar or bank branch, a mirrored slidling glass door conceals the nerve center for what has become the hottest business in Arab television. Inside, scores of computer terminals are buzzing with an endless stream of pre-filtered text messages coming from as far as Casablanca and Kuwait City. Young attendants scan each sophomoric blurb —many containing some variation of the term "Habibi" (Arabic for sweetheart) — for 'inappropriate' or overly sexual phrases that the computer, which automatically removes phone numbers and obscenities, may have missed. The messages, known as SMS, are received in Arabic, French and English — or a patois of all three — and then broadcast live on dozens of Middle Eastern TV stations, eager to stream them across the bottom of their screens.
Upstairs, instead of multi-story apartments, there are bedroom-sized green room studios, graphic design stations and control rooms sandwiched in between. College-aged presenters scurry about rehearsing for call-in shows and other light productions that will soon air as part of a new TV network from Amuzicana. However, the company's core business will remain in providing telecom-related services for around 30 television stations, many dependent on SMS features as a primary revenue stream. At the helm of the bustling operation is managing director Nadia Lahham, dressed in jeans and a short top, giving her age as only "under 30." Her mobile phone rings incessantly, alternating between pop songs and animal noises, as she prepares to launch the company's first TV station. "Owning our own media is just an add-on," she explains. "TV is another medium to promote our service."

The evolution of interactive TV
A decade ago, Amuzicana's parent company, LibanCall, which provides mobile subscribers with ring tones, weather updates and horoscopes, began moving into television with the emergence of call-in game shows. But real synergy between broadcasting and telecommunications, two of the Middle East’s fastest growing industries, only began to take off with the exponential growth of SMS text messaging, which in recent years, has become one of the most popular means of communication in the region. It was only a matter of time before TV stations caught wind of the potential and today there are over 50 Arab channels that frame all of their content, mainly music videos, around an increasing array of text and graphics bars. In addition to chatting, viewers can vote for the next video, play on-air games, and purchase ring tones and merchandise from their favorite artists as they watch them on screen. Amuzicana is one of a handful of companies outsourcing on behalf of the new generation of stations, managing the communication flows by filtering and tabulating the incoming messages. "It's not one way anymore," says Lahham. "TV stations have to be interactive."
Indeed, the most popular programs on Arab airwaves, such as the format 'reality-TV' genre SuperStar and Star Academy are based entirely on viewer responses through SMS voting.
"If there wasn't any voting, these shows would not be so popular," she says. "But now people feel like they have a say, 'I can decide if this girl stays on the show or not. It's just like voting for government; sometimes you feel it’s your responsibility."

SMS democracy?
Sociologists often joke that more Arabs vote on television shows than in actual elections. Of course, "freedom to vote on TV is not freedom to vote in reality," says Dima Dabbous-Sensenig, a media studies professor at the Lebanese American University. If anything, interactive TV may become a catalyst for social change. Industry insiders say that most of the TV-bound SMS traffic is emanating from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, where mobile usage and disposable income is relatively high among young people. Yet at the same time, the oil-rich Gulf kingdoms are also among the most socially conservative Arab countries, with most families forbidding unsanctioned contact between the sexes, particularly dating. Despite efforts at filtration, Dabbous-Sensenig says many of the messages broadcast remain "very explicit sexually" with comments on physical appearance and even marriage proposals: "People are letting off steam."
Walid Tabbar, who oversees SMS traffic at music video network Rotana, which runs six TV channels, says he was surprised by viewers' determination to circumvent the censor. In a bid to prevent on-screen dating, the station uses software to remove all email addresses and phone numbers from the messages it broadcasts. But much like Amuzicana, a second layer of human filtration is required to decipher coded phrases used to disguise phone numbers. “They are so ingenious. Sometimes they write poetry and say ‘count the letters for every word’ and it’s a (phone) number.”
Few examples illustrate the power of SMS voting more than Saudi Arabia's failed attempt to ban its citizens from participating in the hit reality show Star Academy. Citing un-Islamic behavior, the kingdom's leading telecom firm, STC, blocked its subscribers from texting their favorite candidates on the program, which groups unmarried men and women together in the same house to have their lives taped. Yet defiant Saudi viewers managed to keep voting over the internet through a multitude of websites that offer SMS services. The result was a Saudi winner and a re-imposition of the ban late last year. "When you are faithful to something, a ban will not stop you," says Jihad Bitar, a TV consultant, with Beirut-based Comtrax Solutions. Echoing the excitement among many marketers, Bitar says the SMS phenomenon has proved its staying power by strengthening ties between audiences and programs. "You are not just a viewer, you are part of the program," he says. "It has become your program and this is huge."

Cash Cow
STC did not hide the fact that it would be sustaining heavy losses when it announced the renewal of its ban on Star Academy, “despite the high revenues the company would have achieved from ads and text votes,” according to a statement on its website.
Controversy or not, the marriage between SMS and television appears to be backed by gold. Mobile operators are reaping an estimated 50 percent of call revenues while benefiting from free advertising on the channels. "It's absolute zero investment from them," says Jawad Abbassi, president and founder of research firm Arab Advisor's Group. Stations are equally hooked. An SMS scroll bar may have been viewed as a "competitive edge" in the past, but today, it is a "business necessity," Abbassi says, adding that SMS is increasingly seen as a supplement to advertising revenues, which, estimated at $300 million, fall well short of supporting the growth of channels in the Middle East. "Increasingly, shows are expected to have a call-in or SMS dynamic," he explains. Figures from Arab Advisor's group Group show music video channels to be one of the fastest growing programming segments in the region. In many cases, SMS revenues could be equal if not greater than funds generated from television commercials, especially for channels that feature very little original programming. "Many free-to-air channels realize that advertising is not going to cut it. They want to capitalize on interactive TV and the huge growth in the mobile phone industry. Music channels have almost forsaken TV ads," Abbassi says.

Easy money
According to the Egyptian satellite operator Nilesat, approximately 60 music/sms SMS channels have sprung up over the past two and a half years. Considering the petty overhead costs, it’s easy to see why.
For one, most of the content is free with distribution labels and artists eager to get their clips aired on as many channels as possible.
A third party like Amuzicana is usually then contracted to sort and tabulate the SMS traffic, and if necessary, create minimalist green-screen productions. However, some channels do not even feature any semblance of original content, let alone videos. A new breed of text-only channels is fueled by a PC-sized software and graphics system, such as that provided by Istanbul-based firm Teknomaks, which sells for as low as $20,000.
“You don’t need any big building, just a small room to put the server inside,” says Teknomak’s Can Gokcer. The system allows a channel to play videos, run streaming text and display on-screen games and graphics. “Two employees are enough, it’s very easy.”
In addition to low costs, a lack of broadcast regulations is a boon for the new breed of stripped-down channels. Gokcer says Turkish authorities only allow 20 percent of a screen to be used by scrolling SMS text, a far cry from the 100 percent usage now seen on several Arab channels. There are also huge benefits when it comes to billing restrictions. “In Europe, there are national constraints because people don’t want their kids to spend all of their money,” says Nicolas Hans with French software firm Dalet Digital Media Systems, which has clients in the region. “In Saudi Arabia, they don’t seem to have that problem.”

The Bottom Line
Rotana’s Tabbar says his network receives so many messages that viewers are now opting to purchase priority “VIP messages” that skip to the beginning of the queue for double the price of a standard text.
But what he and most other industry sources won’t say is just how long that queue is, and how many messages are actually received per day. One industry source that enjoys close ties with two of the region’s leading music channels told MEB Journal that SMS revenues total just under $1 million per channel per month, half of which goes to the telecom operators. Whether an understatement or exaggeration, the business is clearly lucrative, evidenced by the mushrooming of SMS start-ups over the last two years and the increasing encroachment of text bars across the screen, even on major channels like Rotana. Rotana Clip, one of four music channels operated by the company, now features messages across half the screen. “We fight for real estate space,” Tabbar says. “For me I want to use the whole screen while the program manager actually would not want to use any part of the screen.”
Instead of sub-contracting, Rotana now has an entire in-house team developing graphics and filtering messages. “It’s a good income maker,” he adds, claiming he is unaware of the daily volume of messages. For now, stations may not want to go public with SMS figures, but they are certainly making good use of the data to build audience profiles and woo advertisers, an essential resource in a region where real-time ratings are absent. “You would say look at the stats, I have one million calls so at least one million people are watching,” says Amuzicana’s Lahham. “The stations would have actual statistics to sell this airtime.”

What’s next?
The Pan Arab Research Center’s Jihad Fakhreddine, who fields audience surveys for several regional broadcasters, says he was surprised to get calls from “major TV channels” inquiring about mobile phone penetration rates “It’s an alert,” he says, noting that both of his adolescent children are adamant users of SMS. “You can tell that this generation is different.”
In the future, new mobile networks known as 3G or third generation will make sending and downloading videos as commonplace as today’s SMS traffic. Some broadcasters are already experimenting with allowing viewers to send self-made videos over their screens, a potential nightmare for the censors. “I think it’s too personal,” says Rotana’s Tabbar. Whether or not video catches on, interactive television has proven it is here to stay. One of the hottest areas of growth is likely to be co-branding agreements, according to Lahham. The on-air give away shows are welcomed by major brands, telecom providers and stations alike. For example, an interactive telecom component was recently added to the annual Miss Lebanon beauty pageant, where viewers were able to call in or text answers to riddles running across the bottom of the screen for a chance to win a new car.
“The car is happy because it is on TV, we are happy because everyone is calling our numbers and we are making money, the station is making money and the callers are happy because they get to win a car: It’s it’s a win-win situation,” says Lahham.
She jokes that it took her mother ten years to figure out how to send an SMS message. “Today, if a TV station does not have it (interactivity), it is not up-to-date, it’s an old TV station.”