The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is rapidly evolving into one of the most dynamic markets for connected TV (CTV) and HbbTV. With smart TV adoption accelerating and broadcasters seeking new revenue opportunities, HbbTV-based technologies are emerging as a key enabler of addressable advertising, interactive engagement, and measurable monetisation.
These opportunities were the focus of HbbTV’s latest webinar, “HbbTV in MENA: Unlocking new opportunities for addressable advertising and monetisation”, held on 15 October 2025. The session brought together leading experts from across the region: Cem Eroğlu, VP Turkey & MEA & Central Asia at Adform; Tuna Gürel, Chief Revenue Officer at TVekstra; Atinç Ögüt, Deputy General Manager for Consumer Electronics Product Management at Vestel; and Ralph Edeine, Head of Engineering and Technical Solutions at Eutelsat.
Moderated by journalist Jörn Krieger, the webinar explored how open standards are helping MENA broadcasters compete against walled gardens, how data-driven monetisation is transforming connected TV, and how manufacturers and operators are collaborating to deliver rich, hybrid viewing experiences.
The webinar can be viewed on YouTube.
The discussion also served as a prelude to the HbbTV Symposium and Awards 2025, taking place on 12–13 November in Istanbul, co-hosted with TVekstra.
The rise of connected TV against the walled gardens
Cem Eroğlu, VP Turkey & MEA & Central Asia, Adform
Cem Eroğlu opened the webinar with a candid assessment of the battle between open web ecosystems and the closed walled gardens that dominate digital advertising. He explained how connected TV has become the newest arena in this ongoing contest, and why broadcasters in MENA have a powerful opportunity to compete if they embrace open, standards-based technologies such as HbbTV.
“Once TVs became connected, they transformed into digital screens where advertisers and agencies could buy inventory programmatically,” said Eroğlu. “But this environment is now split between walled gardens – like YouTube – and the open web. Broadcasters using HbbTV are part of the open web, and that gives them a strategic advantage.”
Eroğlu highlighted that connected TV offers premium, licensed content in brand-safe environments, something that sets it apart from user-generated video platforms. He also argued that, through HbbTV and programmatic ad tech, broadcasters now have the same targeting, measurement, and frequency-capping capabilities as digital publishers.
In Turkey, Adform and its long-term partner TVekstra have led much of this innovation. Together they have made linear TV addressable, measurable, and auditable, building integrations that connect broadcast and digital data to deliver “fusion planning” across screens.
One striking example from the Turkish market showed how advertisers running a linear TV campaign can identify overlapping households on connected TV and then retarget or exclude them accordingly, creating a true omnichannel strategy that reduces media wastage and increases reach.
Eroğlu cited a case study with Reckitt Benckiser and HAVAS that demonstrated a 7% improvement in incremental reach and an 11% reduction in media waste through such techniques.
“We’re connecting the consumer journey across linear, CTV, and digital,” he said. “Advertisers can now find their first-party audiences on the open web and on TV, manage frequency, and even link TV exposure to CRM or ERP data. The result is that connected TV is no longer a secondary screen, it’s the starting point.”
Adform’s ID Fusion technology, already used widely for cross-device identification, is extending into TV environments, allowing advertisers to target households deterministically and measure outcomes while maintaining privacy and compliance with European data regulations.
Eroğlu concluded by stressing that MENA broadcasters have the assets (content, audiences, and trust) to thrive in this open ecosystem. The challenge, he said, is to embrace data-driven monetisation with the same sophistication as digital platforms.
Next-generation monetisation in HbbTV & connected TV
Tuna Gürel, Chief Revenue Officer, TVekstra
Building on Adform’s technology foundation, Tuna Gürel of TVekstra provided a broadcaster’s perspective on how connected and hybrid TV are transforming monetisation across Turkey and the wider MENA region.
Smart TV penetration has surged in Turkey, he said, with roughly 70 percent of households, around 18 million devices, now connected. Despite this shift, viewing habits remain rooted in linear television. Turkish audiences still spend more than three hours and 45 minutes per day watching broadcast TV (half an hour more than the European average) and most homes receive content via satellite rather than IPTV or OTT.
This combination of high smart-TV penetration and strong broadcast viewing creates ideal conditions for HbbTV-based addressable advertising. TVekstra, which partners with Turkey’s seven national broadcasters, reaches around 40 million viewers and 11.5 million households through HbbTV integrations, roughly half the population.
For broadcasters, the benefits are tangible. Gürel reported that HbbTV services typically account for 5–10 percent of additional digital revenue, providing new ad inventory when online properties such as websites and apps are saturated. Advertisers, meanwhile, gain access to precise targeting, measurement, and interactivity that traditional TV cannot provide.
Hybrid TV planning: Bridging the old and the new
One of TVekstra’s key innovations is “Hybrid TV Planning,” a methodology that bridges traditional linear TV buying (based on Gross Rating Points and Cost per Point) with digital metrics such as CPM.
“HbbTV sits right between offline TV and online advertising,” said Gürel. “Media agencies often struggle to compare them, so we created a hybrid model that feels familiar to TV planners while still offering the precision of digital.”
This hybrid approach helps unlock budgets from offline TV rather than competing with other digital platforms. “We don’t want to fight each other in online advertising,” he added. “We want to open new budgets from traditional TV.”
Interactive and data-driven formats
TVekstra has also developed a range of interactive and data-driven ad formats, showcasing how APIs and contextual data can enhance viewer engagement:
- API-Driven Campaigns: By integrating live data feeds, such as sports scores, weather, or traffic, TVekstra transforms ads into value-added experiences. One campaign displayed live football results within an ad unit, updated in real time, achieving average viewer engagement of 11 minutes.
- Automatic Content Recognition (ACR): Using AI-based image and audio analysis directly on the TV device, TVekstra can trigger context-aware ads during specific moments in TV shows. For example, when a scene referenced “summer holidays,” an overlay for a beachwear brand appeared, delivering significantly higher click-through rates.
- Data-Linked Campaigns: Through its partnership with Adform, TVekstra enables campaigns that link exposure data from TV to digital retargeting or CRM systems. This allows advertisers to follow up with viewers who saw a TV ad, or exclude those who did, improving efficiency and performance.
- Brand Lift Surveys (BLS): TVekstra can now conduct post-campaign surveys directly on smart TVs, measuring ad recall or brand advocacy within the same environment. “Viewers are more willing to interact with surveys than with ads,” Gürel noted, “so response rates are often twice as high.”
Together, these capabilities move HbbTV advertising beyond brand awareness into measurable performance marketing, an evolution that resonates strongly with MENA advertisers seeking accountability and ROI.
Smart TV and HbbTV developments in the MENA market
Atinç Ögüt, Deputy General Manager, Vestel
From the manufacturer’s viewpoint, Atinç Ögüt of Vestel explored how smart TV hardware and software are evolving to meet the region’s diverse needs.
Vestel is one of Europe’s largest TV manufacturers, number three in unit volume, and the market leader in Turkey. While best known for its OEM partnerships, Vestel is now extending its footprint beyond Europe into the Middle East and North Africa, where smart TV adoption is accelerating but connectivity remains uneven.
Ögüt described how Vestel, in collaboration with Eutelsat, is developing solutions that combine DVB-I service discovery with HbbTV metadata distribution .
“When we analysed the market, we saw that internet connectivity varies greatly, very high in the UAE, moderate in Saudi Arabia, and as low as 15 percent in Egypt,” said Ögüt. “We needed a hybrid strategy that works for both online and offline viewers.”
Hybrid approaches for a hybrid region
Vestel’s forthcoming SAT TV Connect and Sat.TV solution, developed with Eutelsat, exemplifies this hybrid model. It enables service discovery and metadata delivery via internet (DVB-I) while adding interactivity through HbbTV.
The approach supports country – specific service list in MENA region (and language-specific service lists in Europe), localized metadata, and targeted ad delivery, ensuring a consistent user experience across MENA’s fragmented infrastructure.
Preparing for addressable advertising
Ögüt also emphasized Vestel’s role in enabling addressable advertising at the device level, leveraging HbbTV features to deliver L-shaped banners and video overlays. These capabilities, he said, will underpin the next wave of monetisation across the region.
“Our goal is to create opportunities for targeted advertising using both broadcast and broadband signals,” he explained. “We see HbbTV and DVB-I as the bridge to achieve that.”
Together with the partners, Vestel plans to showcase further innovations at the HbbTV Symposium & Awards 2025 in Istanbul.
HbbTV services and solutions in MENA
Ralph Edeine, Head of Engineering and Technical Solutions, Eutelsat
Concluding the webinar, Ralph Edeine from Eutelsat presented the operator’s vision for transforming the satellite free-to-air (FTA) experience in MENA through HbbTV-based services.
Eutelsat distributes over 1,000 FTA channels to more than 100 million households across the region from its orbital positions at 13° East, 16° East and 7/8° West. Despite this abundance, he noted, the user experience has historically been poor: channels appear in random order, and many receivers lack electronic programme guides (EPGs).
To address this, Eutelsat launched Sat.tv, a service that standardises and manages satellite service lists while providing automatic installation, updates, and seven-day EPGs. Originally focused on non-connected set-top boxes, the platform is now evolving into Sat.tv connect, a connected-TV service that leverages HbbTV and DVB-I to enable interactivity, analytics, and advertising.
Four service layers for Sat.tv connect
Edeine outlined four layers of functionality in the sat.tv connect model:
- Service Discovery via DVB-I: Automatically installs satellite channel lists, categorized by language and country.
- Enriched EPG Portals: Provides a multi-language, seven-day guide accessible via HbbTV, enabling viewers to browse and zap between channels seamlessly.
- Branded EPG Channels: Offers broadcasters their own interactive guide pages, integrating logos, now/next info, and quick links to live programming.
- Analytics and Advertising: Embeds measurement agents within branded portals to collect viewing data, empowering broadcasters with usage dashboards and paving the way for addressable ad models.
“This is the first step toward data-driven strategies for free-to-air broadcasters,” said Edeine. “We can provide audience measurement, and from there we can move to programmatic ad insertion or overlay advertising.”
Eutelsat has partnered with FAST-channel aggregators WeDoTV and SoFAST, integrating their feeds into the Sat.tv EPG and enabling new ad-supported business models for satellite distribution. Future iterations of Sat.tv Connect aim to support real-time advertising, L-banners, and open-programmatic ad insertion, giving broadcasters the tools to monetise both linear and on-demand viewing.
Edeine concluded by inviting technology partners across the HbbTV ecosystem to collaborate on these initiatives and help MENA broadcasters capture the full potential of hybrid delivery.
A region on the verge of transformation
The Q&A session that followed underscored both the promise and the challenges of HbbTV adoption in the MENA region. While no government mandates currently require HbbTV support in devices, as is the case in some European markets, momentum is clearly building from the industry side.
Edeine confirmed that Eutelsat and its partners are closely monitoring regulatory developments country by country, while Gürel noted that in some markets HbbTV functionality exists in devices but remains deactivated by manufacturers or local policies.
Despite these variations, all speakers agreed that MENA is at an inflection point. Broadcasters are looking beyond satellite-only delivery toward hybrid models; advertisers are demanding measurability and addressability; and device makers are enabling the technical foundations for interactive, data-driven TV.
As Cem Eroğlu put it early in the session:
“The competition between open web and walled gardens is better than ever before. We’re no longer the leftover inventory, we’re the first frequency, starting from the household.”
Looking ahead to Istanbul
The webinar concluded with a reminder that these themes will feature prominently at the HbbTV Symposium and Awards 2025, taking place 12–13 November in Istanbul, co-hosted by the HbbTV Association and TVekstra.
The event will explore topics including addressable advertising, hybrid broadcast-broadband delivery, new monetisation models, and the growing role of HbbTV in emerging markets such as MENA, Asia, and Eastern Europe.
With smart TV penetration accelerating, satellite operators modernising their platforms, and broadcasters embracing data-driven advertising, the MENA region is poised to become a showcase for the next phase of HbbTV innovation.
About the webinar
Title: HbbTV in MENA – Unlocking New Opportunities for Addressable Advertising and Monetisation
Date: 15 October 2025, 10:00–11:00 CEST
Speakers:
- Cem Eroğlu, VP Turkey & MEA & Central Asia, Adform
- Tuna Gürel, Chief Revenue Officer, TVekstra
- Atinç Ögüt, Deputy General Manager, Consumer Electronics Product Management, Vestel
- Ralph Edeine, Head of Engineering and Technical Solutions, Eutelsat
Moderator: Jörn Krieger, Journalist
A recording of the webinar is available on YouTube.
Next Webinar: Inside HbbTV DRM – Standards, Market Insights, and Real-World Deployments (29 October 2025)
For more information on upcoming webinars and the HbbTV Symposium & Awards 2025, visit www.hbbtv.org.
