Last November, Lebanon’s Council of Ministers added an item to the agenda to grant Ogero, the country’s primary provider of fixed and mobile internet services, the authorization to stream over-the-top (OTT) content freely on the internet, particularly television content broadcasting in partnership with the parties that have licensed it.
This proposal came after the Ministry of Telecommunications asked the Legislation and Consultation Committee at the Ministry of Justice for authorization to partner with the private sector to offer Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), a service provided by telecom operators worldwide. However, in July, the Committee rejected the IPTV project based on Telecommunications Law No. 431 of 2022, which liberalizes the sector, ensures competitiveness, and limits access to telecom networks and Ogero centers to the Ministry of Telecommunications.
As a result, the Ministry of Telecommunications submitted another proposal based on OTT rather than IPTV in November. So far, although the Legislation and Consultation Committee has emphasized that any party can submit a bid to be awarded the joint project, there have been media campaigns promoting the OTT project that have yet to mention any details, aside from the fact that Ogero will develop the service.
What Is OTT and How Is it Different from IPTV?
Over-the-top (OTT) services are added-value services streamed via the internet. They may include messages, audio and video content, or TV programs and films upon demand. Many examples of OTT service providers and applications used by subscribers in Lebanon include Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Shahid, and several other platforms streaming content online.
Whenever users connect to these platforms, they use internet data obtained from abroad by the Ministry of Telecommunications and paid for by the subscriber every month.
Meanwhile, IPTV is a more suitable technology for fixed network operators, including internet providers, because it enables them to offer their subscribers a higher-quality and faster TV service via the internet. Previously, this service required an IPTV set-top box to be available in landline subscribers’ homes; now, however, it can be enabled through smart TV or smartphone applications.
Mysterious Companies Gearing Up
While the Minister of Telecommunications claims that a private company will not be contracted to offer the OTT services, media reports have indicated that “the Ministry of Telecommunications will not offer the service directly, and that only one bidder is proposing to offer the OTT service – a company called ‘Stream Media’ which has been in the news lately. According to the proposal submitted by this private company, Ogero’s share of the revenue will not exceed 10%. At the same time, neither the Ministry of Telecommunications nor Ogero will have any substantial role in the process.”
The proposal submitted by Stream Media and signed by Ogero dates back to March 2023, which implies that certain companies had been secretly gearing up to win the OTT project. This shows that Ogero’s low share of the revenue had long been part of the plan.
Ministry of Telecommunications: Committed to delivering any streaming project?
The Minister of Telecommunications is trying to depict the OTT service as a “modern achievement.” In contrast, this service has been available worldwide for years and has seen a surge in the MENA region. And although Lebanon is late to the party, the new project is receiving significant media attention.
However, the Legislation and Consultation Committee authorized Ogero to take charge of the OTT project under certain conditions. For example, “Ogero may establish partnerships with the private sector as part of the duties entrusted to it following the contract signed with the Ministry of Telecommunications.” In addition, “these partnerships must meet the conditions mentioned in the regulations on public-private partnerships.” The Legislation and Consultation Committee also stressed the need to announce tenders and disclose the names of private sector partners, which has yet to be done.
Several MPs had submitted a detailed question about the issue to the Council of Ministers and the Minister of Telecommunications in January. However, the Council of Ministers and the Minister have not yet responded, even after the MPs held a press conference at the Parliament on March 12, during which they also stated that the 15-day deadline for issuing a response had passed.
MP Yassin Yassin, a member of the Parliamentary Telecommunications Commission, submitted the question to the Council of Ministers and the Minister of Telecommunications. In an interview with SMEX, he wondered why online streaming and Ogero were being conflated “since anyone can offer this service, without necessarily being an internet service provider.” He also asked: “Why are the Ministry of Telecommunications and Ogero insisting on offering a service that does not have to be offered by them and does not require their infrastructure?”
MP Yassin believes that the problem is primarily due to unreasonable requests, such as the Ministry of Telecommunications and Ogero’s request to enable private companies to offer IPTV services. When it was pointed out that this violated laws authorizing uses related to public internet applications only, “the Ministry of Telecommunications decided to try passing the project under the guise of OTT services.”
Yassin also wondered “why Ogero was authorized to provide the OTT service, which is offered by many companies without the need for licensing, instead of having the Ministry provide the IPTV service, which they tried to grant to private companies at first.”
Ogero: The project offers added value
In an interview with SMEX, Ogero Director-General Imad Kreidieh said, “The IPTV service, which offers content via landlines, has become obsolete, and the sector needs to keep up with recent developments.” He added that “this service is costly for subscribers, as it requires the installation of cables and set-top boxes for each TV separately, while the OTT service is less costly and allows subscribers to select bundles that meet their needs.”
Kreidieh also stated that OTT services eliminate the need for illegal cable distributors, which control the market and offer poor-quality services. Instead, OTT offers high-quality content via the internet, guarantees the rights of IP owners, reduces visual pollution caused by the thousands of cables installed on streets and between buildings, and reduces the number of satellite dishes on rooftops. However, it is still being determined how the application being developed by Ogero will resolve all these problems when its internet network barely reaches a third of subscribers on the market. Most subscribers resort to illegal companies, and Ogero subscribers face constant service interruptions.
Nevertheless, in his talk with SMEX, Ogero Director-General Imad Kreidieh insisted that “the project offers added value for Ogero subscribers, especially since Ogero would be offering a service that was not available in the public sector, while only a small minority of people could access it via private companies.” Kreidieh claimed that Ogero subscribers could enjoy this service at affordable prices, starting at $4 for each bundle, with a maximum of $13, depending on the bundles chosen by the subscribers.
In response to the campaign against its OTT platform, Ogero stated, “This service is expected to generate millions of dollars for the Treasury, reduce pirated content, help protect IP rights, and legalize the way Lebanese people consume media.”
But the question remains: What about the remaining subscribers who cannot access Ogero’s internet network in a country whose neighborhoods are split between internet and cable TV distributors? According to Kreidieh, Ogero’s network has not expanded due to the government’s lack of interest in developing and investing in productive sectors, so the telecommunications network has not evolved since the October 17 uprising and the economic crisis that has affected Lebanon since then.
It should be noted, however, that several failed expansion projects had been before the crisis, such as the fiber optics network that was first implemented in 2010 during the term of former Telecommunications Minister Charbel Nahas. The goal was to expand the fiber optics network to reach DSL subscribers’ homes and add more than 160,000 out of 780,000 DSL subscribers to the new network. However, by the end of 2019, the fiber optics network had only reached 40,000 subscribers.
Ogero’s share of the internet market has shrunk in favor of illegal operators. The illegal sector serves nearly 700,000 subscribers, which is double the number of Ogero subscribers and the declared subscribers of private companies, according to Telecommunications Minister Johnny Corm, who is allegedly leading efforts to “combat illegal internet providers.”
In his interview with SMEX, Kreidieh denied that there was a consensual agreement with any party so far. He claimed that Ogero’s soon-to-be-launched platform and the actions it is taking under the purview of the Ministry of Telecommunications are in line with Article 46 of the Law on the Public Procurement Authority, which enables Ogero to purchase content from an individual owning exclusive rights to content that the State is interested in by a consensual agreement. “Ogero will not purchase the content itself; it will stream it via the internet without paying any sums to the content creators.”
While the owners of TV channels in Lebanon welcomed the OTT service and defended it in many of their news reports, Kreidieh says that this service “will legalize the process by which content creators earn money, which will generate income for the Ministry of Telecommunications and Ogero, because our platform respects the IP rights of TV channels, contrary to cable distributors who do not pay the amounts due to TV channel owners.”
Ministry of Telecommunications Offering Free Concessions
The proposed OTT deal – the most recent of several proposed services, such as the digital wallet and IPTV – has many hidden elements coming to light. Instead of allowing the government to benefit from the entire revenue, the minister and those advocating for the project want to burden the government with all the expenses while granting the profits to private companies.
According to an informed telecom expert, if the contract were signed with the private company, the Ministry of Telecommunications would grant the content owner significant concessions, giving it complete control of all Ogero subscribers, infrastructure, and equipment.
Moreover, the private company, which will receive a commission of more than 90%, will be able to benefit from the Ministry’s large infrastructure, access more than one million Ogero DSL subscribers, use Ogero’s billing system and add the streaming service bill to it, and force Ogero to increase internet capacity and speeds to keep up with the demand, according to the same expert.
The expert also wondered why Ogero did not adopt the IPTV service after it was not conceded to private companies, even though it is currently “more suitable for Ogero’s network as it does not require an intermediary and does not add any pressure to the internet network.”
Is the Ministry of Telecommunications, which is entrusted with managing the sector, trying to give a private company a monopoly over this service under the pretext that the government lacks the financial and technical capacity to roll it out?
Both MP Yassin and the telecom expert agree that the Minister of Telecommunications is strengthening the control of private companies over the telecom sector and transforming Ogero into a simple carrier that only receives a fraction of the revenue instead of developing the industry or building meaningful and profitable partnerships with the private sector.
