Focusing on content marketing opportunities in MENA, another of the featured panels during the weekend at Virtual Screenigns Worldwide, combined acquisition executives from linear and non linear platforms such as HilalPlay (Malaysia/UAE), All is Media (UAE), Shoffa app (Egypt), and AbuDhabi Media (UAE).
The session “Licensing entertainment content in MENA: opportunities and challenges” was conducted by Heba Korayem, content market expert at H.Consult, who offered a brief insight into the media in MENA, a market where more than 700 satellite TV channels, more than 15 regional OTT platforms, more than 20 telecom IPTV coexist Networks, more than 100 production companies, and more than 50 popular Arabic dubbing houses.
Established in 2020, Sagar Khemani is the head of content of HilalPlay, an SVOD platform coming from Asia to target Arabic and English speakers worldwide. ‘It provides world class content focusing on values of family-oriented principle. Our main market is Arabic, but we also consider the Canadian and North American markets as very important ones, so we are in talks to offer the platform to the Arab community beyond MENA’.
Ahmed Abdelhamid, Head of Programming & Acquisitions at Abu Dhabi Media, referred to its ADTV platform, which started with linear content catch up services, but today it acquires content for the Egyptian market: ‘We are focused on historical and epic content and dramatic, which is very popular in our market. We are also exploring opportunities as co-producers with local partners’.
Fadi Doss, CEO of Shofha App (Egypt), the VOD platform from ArpuPlus, a subsidiary of digital products and technology company A15 and MENA’s biggest content aggregators with more than 200,000 pieces of diversified content. The app was revamped on 2019 and operates in 13 MENA countries offering the most recent Arab feature film titles.
Doss specified that the app is seeking to make Arabic content attractive not only to Arab users: ‘Since our mission is to make people’s lives much easier, we integrated features and an advanced technology into the platform to transform the video streaming experience of our users. We are operating in different countries and serving different nationalities: Shofha is available in Arabic and English to make it easier for all users to use it in their own preferred language’, he completed.
Lastly, Mai El Khalifa, format acquisition and localization expert at All is media (UAE), spoke about the diversification of content in MENA, where she assured that the audience is opening up to other narratives and content and they are not only consuming historical titles or local: ‘Today I work acquiring not only content of conventional appeal, but also international fictions, and even formats from countries such as the USA and UK, which are generating great interest’.
