A Saudi-based digital content provider wanted to expand its operations abroad. The company was created by a leading fixed-mobile telecommunications firm, as part of its Innovation and Corporate Venturing into digital new businesses, to tap the soaring local demand for digital content. As a result, digital content provider had acquired extensive (and expensive) rights to movies from the Middle East, India, Africa, and North America. Based on its experience in the Saudi market, the digital content provider knew there was an enormous potential audience for its services across the Middle East and North Africa. (See our case studies on the digital unit’s content development strategy and corporate strategy for more information.)

The challenge: starting operations abroad

To effectively tap foreign markets, the leaders at the digital content firm knew they had to make it easy – both for potential business partners who could repackage their content and for consumers that might come to them directly. They needed a solution that could deliver over-the-top TV (OTT TV) and video-on-demand (VOD) services to operators and individuals – but which required very little financial investment or technical expertise.

Once such a solution was identified, the company also required a thorough and well researched business case that outlined potential revenue sources in detail. It needed to account for likely opex and capex and the potential for long-term financial returns. And of course it needed a clear go-to-market strategy to express the value proposition and to motivate operators to adopt the service.