With more demand for Arabic-language content, film production companies are ramping up investment and intensifying their content libraries. Blending culture and drama, tradition and modernity, these stories are increasingly drawing non-Arabic-speaking international viewers.
Even as government and private sector collaborations become inevitable to strengthen the Arabic content scene, the region is rising to the challenge of developing strategies to craft compelling narratives.
At the BroadcastPro Summit KSA in February, a trio of leaders from the Middle East’s film and content production landscape discussed cross-border co-productions and partnerships, creating engaging content and more. The expert panel featured Ben Ross, CEO, Image Nation Abu Dhabi; Hana Al Omair, Creative Director, MBC Studios; and Hussein Fakhri, Chief Commercial Officer and Executive Producer, Katara Studios. Moderating the session was Tarek Matar, Partner, Strategy& Middle East.
Navigating the scope and scale of Arabic content in the Middle East, particularly the GCC and Saudi Arabia, Tarek Matar explored regional potential and how homegrown stories could resonate on a global scale. Crafted as very localised productions, Squid Game from South Korea and La Casa de Papel from Spain had succeeded globally. He wanted to understand what tactics content producers could employ to replicate that kind of success for Arabic productions.
With the AlRawabi School for Girls, Arabic content had travelled quite well, said Ben Ross of Image Nation.“I would say the Arab world has set the stage for good content already – Netflix’s AlRawabi is the closest we have seen with successful content from the region. However, everything is developed to revolve around Ramadan. A lot of times, things are reverse-engineered based on a release date, which I understand is the economics of Ramadan. But we need to take time and not rush towards that deadline. It is often better to deliver something improved the following year than run something not good enough.”
Often, a universal story is a universal story. Though there are genres typical to a region, narratives don’t always demand a certain theme that allows them to travel. Stories that are not too dissimilar to other cultures resound with viewers.
“Different cultures dictate different ways of telling the same story. Local audiences are usually drawn to a certain storyline and that popularity makes it go global,” said Ross. “What is important is staying true and being genuine, and if you’re not, it will simply not sustain. Make for your local audience and if you do it right by them, then it can cross borders.”
Focusing on the local aspect is key to getting content to travel. Being sincere to the audience ethos and culture, the dialect, how they dress, all play a decisive role in delivering something that will appeal. “If you try to appeal to everyone, you will appeal to no one, risking alienation or not getting the right attention at the local stage, let alone the global stage,” agreed Matar.
With the world such a small place right now, “Global audiences will know if the local audience hasn’t responded and they won’t bother watching it no matter the concept or story,” added Ross.
Content is distributed and disseminated differently these days. Linear TV and cinema blockbusters are rapidly moving to OTT platforms. Alongside is a hoard of short-form content created on YouTube and other social media platforms. From the production point of view, steering content that can work on different formats to achieve viewership becomes a huge task, particularly with the need to suit the fleeting mindset of a younger generation.
“As a platform, we concentrate on Shahid, but social media is very important right now,” said Hana Al Omair of MBC Studios. “It helps us gauge a show’s success through audience interaction. Social media is a key measurement of success – it influences both marketing and content creation, which in turn shapes the content itself. It guides us in deciding what to create and makes us more aware of our audience.”
The Saudi market is at a nascent stage and promises to be upbeat. “But being a young market means it is at the discovery and experimental stage of growth, of what will work and what won’t. Even with content in Saudi, on Shahid we are exploring different genres, whether short-form or the miniseries or longer forms, and with every single experiment we are learning more about the needs of our audiences,” said Al Omair.
In this respect, it is important that content producers, distributors and OTT platforms put into place systems and data analytics that measure and analyse audience data and preferences. This real-time input helps a fast feedback loop that can be adapted to improve targetability and personalisation of content.
Big media hubs such as Neom and AlUla in Saudi Arabia, and others in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, have played a major role in stimulating content production while at the same time attracting global blockbusters to the region. In this support and collaboration between government entities and private sector players lies one of the ways to incentivise the industry.
“If we want to see a change in this industry, the private sector must come in at some stage, otherwise we are never going to see the growth that we should,” said Hussein Fakhri of Katara Studios. “The incentives and the rebates are great, and Abu Dhabi has been the pioneer in that respect in the Gulf. But more needs to be done to motivate and entice the private sector. To do that, we need to show that there’s a return on investment for this industry.
“Investors don’t see a proper commercial viability for what we do and so getting investment in our industry is always a struggle. Governments must stimulate that first. Instead of doing an SAR 200m fund for content, they should do an SAR 100m fund and bring in the remaining 100m from the private sector and say, your capital is guaranteed. That is the future I see for a public-private collaboration.”
The region is witnessing the start of that alliance, with some funds created in Saudi Arabia today that have a government or public entity contribution, as well as some fundraising from the private sector. As soon as those returns begin to materialise, the industry will get that ‘hockey stick effect’ in terms of private sector attraction and growth in the industry.
Seeing the pace of advancement and the societal changes in the region means looking at narratives in a new light. The picture reveals an edging towards modernity, said Matar, especially on the larger canvas of cinema, as well as on visually attractive Netflix shows such as Dubai Bling.
“It is obviously working for them,” said Fakhri. “It may not be my choice, but it’s not a subjective view and the point here is about staying authentic to ourselves. We have a treasure trove of IP and stories in this part of the world, we are storytellers, it’s in our DNA. And if we tell that authentically and properly, with the right production values, the right writing, the right development and you tick all the boxes, then by default it’s going to do well and it will have the ability to travel.
“India is a great example of a huge industry that makes great content. They don’t get involved in nudity or things that are against their culture. It’s the same for us – we can tell stories that are representative of our culture, and those are the ones that will be successful.”
If the hesitation to tell stories is lifted and those straps fall off, “we are good to go”, added Ross.
The advent of gen AI has affected the wider content ecosystem by revolutionising the way content is produced, and the prospect of production and post-production taking place virtually. While certain aspects of production have seen a spike in AI-aided functions, the practicality of production is not in danger for the next 15 to 20 years, said Ross.
“We are not as close as it is made out to be. Studios in the USA, despite all their deep AI programmes, continue to buy into other studios or build new ones. As long as soundstages remain in demand, AI isn’t a major threat to the industry. But if major players start shifting away from physical studio spaces, that would be a sign that AI-driven production is gaining ground.”
From the production side, AI is a powerful tool in terms of getting things done faster or increasing volume but is not taking away fundamental production requirements for the immediate future.
“It is not going to generate content that is authentic,” said Al Omair. “They are not going to replace the writer or the creative human force that is at work in the industry.”
The big misconception that people have about AI videos on TikTok or Instagram is that they are “instant and free”, said Ross. “Neither is true. You see the five-minute animation videos on TikTok and that’s fantastic. And then the creator in the comments below will say it took him 5,000 hours … so a lot of work hours go into this. Will it be cheaper? Absolutely. But is it instant? No. It’s going to be a long transition.”
Specifically with authenticity, it is difficult to see now how AI can create narratives that stay true to local characteristics and contextualise them to a market or region. While true-to-life genre-centric stories are popular, one segment that sees a lot of traction in the region, particularly in Saudi, is anime. “Anime is not a passing trend; it has its audience and is very appealing to the Saudi market,” said Al Omair.
“Social media is a key measurement of success – it influences both marketing and content creation, which in turn shapes the content itself” – Hana Al Omair, Creative Director, MBC Studios
Growing up in the region with anime, a lot of people pass those interests down to their children, said Ross. “Currently, we are working on an animation film called CatsAway and the organic thing to happen will be a fusion between anime-style animation and traditional-style animation.”
Following shows such as Squid Game and La Casa de Papel, we still need more of a breakthrough than AlRawabi School for Girls, probably the most successful Arabic show to date, said Fakhri. “We haven’t reached that tipping point yet, and the race is now on across the region to be the first to get there.”
Changes in consumption habits will possibly contribute to creating Arabic content that does not work around Ramadan. “We’ve had Ramadan for the last 1,400 years, and I say this with the greatest of respect. We know it comes every year, and yet six months beforehand, we get a call to say we need to do a Ramadan campaign. We need to get out of that cycle, of the 30-episodes sort of thing,” said Fakhri.
It is often challenging to change audience expectations when they are used to a certain genre each year. Also, standards for content differ between regional audiences.
“A lot of things are allowed to slide in Western content, such as not being authentic, suspension of disbelief, etc. But when it comes to local content, they are much less forgiving. They are drilled down on the literalness of what they see, and it’s something we collectively must try to get people over,” said Ross.
People expect a certain format each Ramadan, and when that cycle is broken they don’t necessarily support it. As platforms change with shorter series, and are not designed to fit with Ramadan, fresher ideas and concepts will take shape and audiences will be retrained to accept newer formats.
“If we want to see a change in this industry, the private sector must come in at some stage; otherwise, we are never going to see the growth that we should” – Hussein Fakhri, Chief Commercial Officer and Executive Producer, Katara Studios
“The traditional 30-episode story was the heritage of TV. But it is changing and today we have interesting stories, successful miniseries that are made in 10 or 15 episodes or less and being very popular, and not made in a special way just to fit in Ramadan. Gradually, things will change,” said Al Omair.
With exciting developments in narrative scale, format and platform adaptation, Arabic content creation looks set to surge ahead. Backed by the government, a driven private sector can boost the content scene, making it more creative, commercial and competitive while enriching the ecosystem and enhancing viewer engagement.
