DAMMAM, 17 February — It may well be a revolution in the electronic media and may change the course of advertising industry. The concept is new and tailored to meet the challenges of the advertising industry, which has experienced fierce competition as a result of the mushroom growth of satellite channels. This technology will allow advertisers to select their own audience and their own time of broadcast. This may sound a bit incredible, but UMT Labs (Unlimited Media Technology Labs) with its “Selevision” has made it possible. Selevision is essentially technology that consists of service and a device, to revolutionize the pattern of television viewing and the system of delivering commercials.
Raed Al-Khusheim, the brains behind this novel technology and general manager of UMT Labs, is all set to launch Selevision in the Kingdom. He said it has features that have never been heard of. He said the technology will benefit both network channels and advertisers through its sophisticated and smart commercials-delivery system.
In the present advertising on televisions, advertisers have limited options. If they are advertising a product on a particular channel, he has no say on the targeted audience. It will be a general broadcast viewed by all those subscribing to that channel irrespective of whether the product is relevant to the viewer or not. Selevision will change this and give options to advertisers to select their audiences. The scenario will be that people watching the same channel in different parts of the world might view different advertisements. Khusheim said through Selevision’s Dynamic Broadcast Delivery, network channels — both satellite and cables — would be able to deliver different commercials to different groups based on location, language and gender, utilizing the same commercial spot but without dedicating a separate bandwidth to each targeted group.
Using this, the channels and networks will benefit as they will have more spots to sell at competitive prices with all utilizing the same bandwidth. Advertisers will be able to reach targeted groups without wasting revenue on untargeted viewers.
Another feature of Selevision is Dynamic Time Delivery System. This system will allow any time to be prime time. Television channels have their own prime time and they charge extra to advertisers for prime time spots. Selevision will ensure that commercials are delivered when a viewer turns on his TV, regardless of the time when he watches TV.
Khusheim said Selevision would be capable of guaranteeing the delivery of commercials, no matter what channel the viewer is watching.
No doubt this is a novel and revolutionary concept and may well change the advertising industry. It can only be successful with proper coordination between networks, advertisers and viewers with Selevision acting as lead manager. The technology is based on a server with commercials being received from various networks and then re-broadcast. For this, viewers must install a Selevision receiver.
Khusheim said UTM Labs will have “very lucrative packages for viewers that may range from free subscriptions for cable networks to monetary benefits”. UTM Labs has already signed contracts with several TV networks but Khusheim did not say which ones. At the beginning UTM is concentrating its operations in the Middle East and North Africa but it plans to reach the entire international community in phases.