UAE on track for HDTV broadcast in 2009
In case you haven't heard, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is on a spending spree fueled by its goal to become the country with the bestest of everything. Naturally, that claim includes broadcast HDTV, right? Well, as we've seen in the U.S., there's more to getting HD off the ground than the infrastructure. Lots of channels with little content does not a happy HD populace make, and those are exactly the growing pains that UAE is experiencing. The country has spent some $5-billion on HD infrastructure that has been ready to roll for some 2.5-years, but it's been a, um, desert in terms of content. The market rollout with respect to HD-media is reversed from the situation we had in the U.S. -- the UAE is seeing HDM spark HD broadcast -- but it's still all about content. Our advice is to rely on early adopters until content reaches critical mass, and then the market will catch on. And trust us -- it's worth the wait.
