Television penetration levels in MENA to increase to 41 million homes by 2010

CABSAT2006 will take place from March 7 to March 9, at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU), Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), International Associations Of Broadcasting Manufacturers (IABM) and Global Satellite Forum (GVF) have confirmed their backing for CABSAT underlining the event's status as an international event with a regional focus.

"The endorsement from leading industry associations underlines the exhibition's growing importance as a must-attend event on the industry calendar for electronic media professionals,"

said DWTC Director General, Helal Saeed Al Marri.

He noted that the region's electronic media industry offers a variety of lucrative opportunities. This has resulted in an overwhelming response from exhibitors towards the event. CABSAT2006 is set to be a "sell out" event despite an increase of another exhibition hall.

The vibrant economies of the region have fuelled an influx of channels with 45 new free-to-air satellite TV channels having emerged in the Arab World during the past four months, bringing the region's total to 200 stations.

Around 41 million multi-channel television homes are projected to exist in the Middle East and North Africa by the end of 2010, with 68% of homes connected to cable and satellite television according to industry analysts.
As this region continues to develop, there will be a huge demand for the latest offering in services, receivers, satellite dish and accessories. CABSAT provides the ideal platform to tap in to this vast and developing economy in the region and will offer both exhibitors and visitors with an ideal opportunity to meet and explore business opportunities.

The event has three distinct segments: Cable & Satellite Equipment and Accessories, Broadcast & Production and Communications.

Highlights of this year's event include a Radio and Audio Pavilion that caters to the specific needs of the audio industry for video, radio and studio, CABSAT 2006 Broadcasting Conference, Middle East Satellite Summit as well as Industry Leadership Awards, organised by Digital Studio.

Among other major players to be present at CABSAT2006 from the Cable and Satellite Sector, located in Hall 5 & 6, are Alcad, Dream, Multimedia, Eurostar, eVision, Fortec Star, Golden Interstar, Hutro, MediaCom, Selevision, Shenzhen Co-Ship, SMT, Success Digital, SoundsME, Technosat, Televes and Triax among others.

The Communications sector, located in Hall 6 & 7, has attracted top names like Anacom, Arabsat, Atlas, Channell Digital Sky, Emperion, EMS, Eutelsat, Globecast, Gulfsat, HiNet, Horizon, iDirect, Intelsat, Lunasat, ME Connect, NSTT, New Skies, NewSat, Newtec, Nilesat, Panamsat, Paradise Datacom, RSSC, Thuraya and Viasat.

While the Broadcast and Production sector, located in Hall 7 & 8, has the likes of Advance Media, Avid, Axon, Belden, Canopus, Commscope, Dalet, Discreet, Evertz, Glocom, Harris, Hitachi, JVC, Lawo, Leitch, Matrox, Panasonic, RCS, Salam, SeaChange, Snell & Wilcox, Softedit, Sony, Tek Signals, Thales, Thomson and United Broadcast in the same hall.

CABSAT 2005 covered a gross floor space measuring 12,000 M2 and attracted 7,384 Visitors. As many as 402 from 50 countries participated at the event including five country pavilions from the United Kingdom, Germany (Bavaria), China, Taiwan and Korea.