Television piracy is a thriving infraction in the UAE. Despite efforts by authorities and broadcasters to crack down on illegal transmissions, hacked channels and imported set-top boxes are hitting local broadcasters hard, causing lost potential to the tune of millions of dirhams in subscription revenues.
Part of the challenge is choice: consumers argue they don't have enough. They are right. But broadcasters also correctly point out that they are losing revenue when viewers circumvent services with illegal downloads, pirated cable boxes or unauthorised streaming.
As The National reported yesterday, thousands of people illegally import boxes from India, paying less for a subscription there while watching their preferred channels here. The system works because signals from Indian satellites are strong enough to pick up in the Emirates. And the price for the service in India is a fraction of what customers in the Emirates pay.
Piracy is a scourge the world over, but it is hard to deal with by policing alone. That is evident from the fact that earlier efforts in the UAE have yielded limited results: hundreds of illegal satellite dishes have been confiscated but the problem persists.
Rather than approaching the issue as a law and order matter exclusively, broadcasters should consider it a marketing opportunity too. In a country that is inhabited by hundreds of different communities from different parts of the world, demand for content is wide. Customers will always take the path of least resistance, and if that means clicking "pay" on the television set they will. And yet, with providers seemingly unwilling to respond to consumers' needs, customers will be forced to look elsewhere.
As a reader points out in these pages today, local networks could do well to win over customers by introducing more attractive - and slightly cheaper - packages to a wider array of audiences. By doing so, piracy rates would likely fall, customer satisfaction increase and those millions of dirhams would stop vanishing.
All of which might be easier said than done. Licensing fees are costly, and service providers have to pay the bills before offering more channels for less. But clearly customers want their television. Broadcasters would do well to figure out many more ways of providing it.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors
Power: Combined output 920hp
Torque: 730Nm at 4,000-7,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel consumption: 11.2L/100km
On sale: Now, deliveries expected later in 2025
Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
Real Madrid 1
Ronaldo (87')
Athletic Bilbao 1
Williams (14')
Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
The most expensive investment mistake you will ever make
When is the best time to start saving in a pension? The answer is simple – at the earliest possible moment. The first pound, euro, dollar or dirham you invest is the most valuable, as it has so much longer to grow in value. If you start in your twenties, it could be invested for 40 years or more, which means you have decades for compound interest to work its magic.
“You get growth upon growth upon growth, followed by more growth. The earlier you start the process, the more it will all roll up,” says Chris Davies, chartered financial planner at The Fry Group in Dubai.
This table shows how much you would have in your pension at age 65, depending on when you start and how much you pay in (it assumes your investments grow 7 per cent a year after charges and you have no other savings).
|
Age
|
$250 a month
|
$500 a month
|
$1,000 a month
|
|
25
|
$640,829
|
$1,281,657
|
$2,563,315
|
|
35
|
$303,219
|
$606,439
|
$1,212,877
|
|
45
|
$131,596
|
$263,191
|
$526,382
|
|
55
|
$44,351
|
$88,702
|
$177,403
|
UFC Fight Night 2
1am – Early prelims
2am – Prelims
4am-7am – Main card
7:30am-9am – press cons
