May 24, 2024

OTT Providers in MENA

How are over-the-top television providers doing in the Middle East & North Africa region? By: Kritchanon Tan Kian Wei

When it comes to anything related to streaming services, the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region may not be the first region to come to mind, but did you know, the MENA region has been experiencing a huge growth in over-the-top (OTT) television?

According to a report titled “Middle East and North Africa OTT TV and Video Forecasts 2023”, 13 Arabic countries will see subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) subscriptions grow to 28 million subscribers, almost double the 15 million recorded in 2023. There has been lots of OTT competition in the region lately with plenty of streaming services located in the region, although streaming pioneer Netflix is still leading the pack.

While international streaming giants like Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+ are available in the region, there are plenty of other streaming services in the region, giving rise to intense competition in MENA. This competition has been so great that, in January 2024, Amazon even announced that they would stop funding original series or movies for Amazon Prime Video in the MENA region, despite being the third largest streamer in the region.

One of Amazon Prime Video’s competitors, for example, is Starzplay Arabia, which has over 2.5 million subscribers in the MENA region as of May 2023, more than Amazon Prime Video’s and Disney+’s 2 million and 1.1 million subscribers respectively as of January 2023, making Starplayz Arabia the second most popular SVOD service in the Middle East. The service, which is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, mostly streams Arabic films and TV shows as well as international sports events, though Western titles are available as well. 

Meanwhile, Shahid, another SVOD service focusing on sports and Arabic content, is run by Saudi media conglomerate MBC group and has 1 million subscribers as of January 2023. Other smaller players in the MENA region are ZEE5, which provides Indian content, as well as OSN Plus, which has deals with HBO, Paramount and NBCUniversal, allowing the service to serve a greater range of Hollywood content on top of its Arabic and Turkish offerings. Other services from Asia like Viu and iQIYI are also available in the MENA region.

In conclusion, OTT TV in the MENA region is certainly thriving, with tons of healthy competition from local and international streamers, as well as a rapidly growing audience in the region.

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