OTT Features

by Vijaya Cherian and Kalyani Gopinath

August 14, 2025

Turkish streaming service Exxen’s rapid rise has been only the beginning for parent company Acun Medya. With live sports fuelling massive demand and global ambitions, the broadcaster partnered with Accedo...

Evision bowls MENA over

May 12, 2025

Tapping into the MENA region’s growing passion for cricket, evision has built a dominant sports portfolio through smart rights deals, platform innovation and unique monetisation strategies. In an exclusive conversation...

Monetising content in a competitive regional market

January 9, 2025

No conference is complete without a discussion on monetisation. Our high-profile OTT discussion at the BroadcastPro Summit explored strategies for content localisation, partnerships, collaborations, user engagement, and the integration of...

Turkey’s RTUK blocks Deutsche Welle and Voice of America over licensing issue

Turkish censor board cracks down on TV shows

December 3, 2024

Citing violations of national values, RTÜK has taken the programmes off air for a period of two weeks due to their violent content.

Technology, media entities unite to build trust in online content

Keeping up with the FAST crowd

September 24, 2024

In recent years the streaming industry has witnessed a significant shift in viewer preferences, with free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) surging in popularity. According to a recent Omdia report, while...

Cashing in on the stream

July 22, 2024

Industry experts gathered for a roundtable organised by BroadcastPro ME and Cleeng in Dubai to discuss how to future-proof their OTT services.

Trends shaping the future of OTT in MENA

by N Nomani

April 22, 2024

The inaugural BroadcastPro KSA summit brought together regional experts to take a closer look at personalised content strategies, diverse monetisation models and cutting-edge technologies driving the OTT landscape in the...

Embracing the personal approach

March 18, 2024

Streaming services acknowledge that personalisation is the cornerstone of an enhanced entertainment experience. However, its efficacy hinges on a raft of factors that shape its success or failure. In a...

What to expect in 2024 – Prediction III

February 22, 2024

With major streaming services raising their prices and clamping down on subscriptions, more customers, especially millennials, are turning to FAST channels.

Changing channels: How MENA CEOs are adapting to disruption

February 5, 2024

How do broadcasters chart a steady course as turbulence and disruption become the new normal? Streaming, in particular, has upended broadcast business models in the region. In a special CEO...

OTT technologies: Building, securing & delivering content

January 15, 2024

Exploring and analysing efficient content delivery methods, safeguarding content through anti-piracy measures, leveraging data-driven insights in OTT and addressing the technical challenges associated with live streaming were debated at the...

Trends and tech change the game in MENA

by N Nomani

December 20, 2023

The sports media industry in the Arab world is rapidly evolving due to a slew of emerging tech and swiftly changing viewer trends. Market leaders discuss the state of the...

The future of content creation in MENA: Trends and business practices

December 18, 2023

As formats compete to dictate trends in a diverse MENA environment, what is the nature of content production? Content experts discuss new trends, upcoming business models, changing consumer behaviours and...

From views to value, the monetisation trends shaping OTT today

December 11, 2023

As the OTT media space becomes increasingly competitive, industry professionals at the ASBU BroadcastPro Summit discussed ways to improve viewer engagement and monetisation to stay in the race.

Blinx blazes bold digital trail

November 6, 2023

A cutting-edge digital media hub has emerged in Dubai, designed to meet the demands of a tech-savvy, digitally immersed Arab audience. With a strong focus on providing content optimised for...

StarzPlay’s stellar telco entry

October 12, 2023

StarzPlay has evolved over the years from being solely an OTT player in the MENA market to offering its robust tech platform to telcos and studios, both locally and globally....

Building on the Bedrock of Streaming

September 4, 2023

Ahead of IBC, Jonas Engwall, CEO at Bedrock Streaming talks to BroadcastPro ME, discusses the company's unwavering commitment to streaming and delves into their strategic approach, highlighting how it positions...

Turning passion into profit

May 29, 2023

How do broadcasters offset the stratospheric ticket cost of sporting rights? Can sports subscribers be converted into entertainment consumers? And how can value leaks be plugged? A panel of MENA...

Living the stream

December 14, 2022

Technology has shaped the development of streaming, but can it keep pace with the fast-evolving needs of the industry?

How the MENA streaming sector is tackling the viewership challenge

December 8, 2022

From niche content to data-driven personalisation at every level, streaming players are using a variety of tactics to bring in new audiences. Delegates at the BroadcastPro ME summit were given...

OTT video delivery: Challenges and aspirations

by Sarah Nathan

September 20, 2022

OTT transformed the digital landscape for brands, content creators and broadcasters – and the pandemic transformed OTT. A recent roundtable, hosted by BroadcastPro ME in conjunction with Edgio (formerly Limelight),...

Best tech practices to deliver a superior streaming experience

May 16, 2022

In two years, a lot has changed within the world of entertainment, with the onset of Covid leading to companies adopting different strategies for survival and growth.

Abu Dhabi Motorsport announces global esports racing championship with Gfinity

The future of entertainment is sport

by Sarah Nathan

May 12, 2022

With OTT having moved into mainstream entertainment and fewer people watching linear channels, broadcasters’ models and strategies must adapt to fit ever-changing interests. The IP Studios Future of Sports Broadcasting...

The crystal ball and camel trail leading to increased sports streaming piracy

by Simon Brydon

March 17, 2022

Cashing in on the thrills of watching trained race camels mounted with robotic jockeys galloping at 70km/h and the spills of F1 cars hurtling around a track, video pirate sports...

Creating kids’ content – It’s not child’s play

February 24, 2022

Producing and distributing children’s content has been their forte for the last decade. Now the founders of Jordan’s PG Studios have launched a MENA streaming service for kids, aiming to...

E-commerce strategies for streaming services

by Keith Fernandez

February 14, 2022

While the entertainment industry is abuzz with how streaming services have altered the viewing experience forever, these players remain newcomers in the e-commerce space. Pure e-commerce players have been taking...

Surviving the new world order

January 25, 2022

The popular CEO panel was back at the ASBU BroadcastPro Summit, with industry stakeholders examining the status quo and discussing their plans for 2022 and strategies to maintain a commercially...

Curating content for a diverse MENA audience

January 21, 2022

As content continues to drive consumption across a panoramic OTT backdrop, a panel of experts at the ASBU BroadcastPro Summit explored strategies to entertain the diverse audiences of the MENA...

How a Netflix breach led to a subscriber boom for StarzPlay

by Guest Columnist

January 10, 2022

Heba Korayem discusses why Netflix had to take down 'The Good Doctor' in MENA and navigates content rights in the region.

Taking streaming to the next level

by Staff Writer

December 20, 2021

With the rise in prominence of streaming services, winning share of time, mind and wallet has become critical in an increasingly crowded market. This panel explored new strategies and discussed...

Exploring the content acquisition journey with streamers

by Nishtha Singh

November 25, 2021

Content acquisition experts have a tough job ahead of them, between balancing budgets and securing a continuous stream of content that keeps their subscribers on the platform. At the MENA...

How to lead in the OTT space

by Nishtha Singh

November 15, 2021

At the MENA OTT conference hosted by BroadcastPro Middle East, a panel of industry experts discussed emerging global and MENA business models to make streaming services commercially viable, the role...

Giving us the full Viu

October 18, 2021

Viu recently announced impressive growth numbers for H1 2021, especially in Southeast Asia. BroadcastPro ME caught up with Rohit D’silva, Chief Business Officer for Middle East and South Africa, to...

Driving innovations in streaming

October 11, 2021

BroadcastPro Middle East, in association with Limelight, recently hosted a roundtable exploring new trends in the streaming market and the role of CDNs in offering a better user experience. We...

OSN breaks the mould

August 23, 2021

The BroadcastPro Tech Summit opened with a keynote presentation from the OSN team: Zahra Zayat, Senior VP – OTT Digital and Telco, and Peter Riz, CTO of the pay-TV network....

Breaking new ground with the cloud

August 12, 2021

With the Covid-19 outbreak creating a huge appetite for binge-watching services, entertainment platforms experienced massive traffic, compelling media houses to ramp up their in-house technology services to cope with the...

Monetising sports thoroughly and innovatively

by Nishtha Singh

May 23, 2021

Rights, monetisation, distribution deals, fan engagement and piracy are some of the most critical discussions around sport today. Industry experts navigated them within a MENA context at the Future of...

Unlocking the potential of social

May 19, 2021

Social media platforms play a big role in the sports ecosystem, helping rights owners to increase audiences through fan engagement and extending the traditional narrative. This panel at the Future...

Streaming comes up tops in pandemic – Panel Discussion

March 12, 2021

Covid-19 brought the world to a standstill and forced people to stay at home, resulting in an accelerated demand for online entertainment. The OTT Leaders’ Panel brought together panellists who...

What to expect in 2021 for broadcast industry! The experts speak

February 20, 2021

2020 brought a lot of unexpected change that will perhaps continue into 2021 – but some solution providers and broadcasters have had time to take stock of the situation and...

MBC’s private CDN: Living on the edge

September 9, 2020

In an exclusive interview with Vijaya Cherian, Shahid CTO Dominic Farrell and Head of Digital Infrastructure Adriaan Bloem talk about what led MBC to install a private CDN and what...

Let’s Tok Business: How TikTok is navigating the Middle East market

August 6, 2020

In an exclusive interview with Vijaya Cherian, TikTok's Head of Video and Creative Rami Zeidan discusses how the app is attracting content creators, audiences and businesses to its platform in...

Intigral launches linear channel, undertakes remote operations

June 5, 2020

Intigral was unfazed when a complete lockdown was announced in late March in Dubai. With most of its Ramadan productions ready owing to early planning and the launch of Jawwy...

Prolane enables high-quality video distribution with RIST

January 21, 2020

Broadcast services provider and integrator Prolane, which has offices in Lebanon and Dubai, has developed a platform called Streamlane together with Open Broadcast Systems, based on the RIST protocol. In...

StarzPlay: A personalised recommendation

by Shifa Naseer

January 7, 2020

StarzPlay has been hailed as a success story in the MENA region, with more subscribers than Netflix and Shahid Plus – the other members of the region’s big three. The...

MediaKind announces solutions from its Universe portfolio

September 11, 2019

The scalable solutions announced are Aquila Streaming’, ‘Cygnus 360° Events’, ‘Cygnus Contribution’ and ‘Cygnus Distribution’, which will enable service providers, operators, content owners, and broadcasters to launch new offerings without...

OTT, social media drive video entertainment: The 2018 panel debates

by Supriya Srinivas

December 31, 2018

With per capita consumption of social media across the MENA among the highest in the globe, the second panel discussion on OTT and social media made for compelling listening at...

Qanawat: Building digital platforms for MENA broadcasters

by Supriya Srinivas

October 31, 2018

From left: Onur Alp Aydin, Business Development Manager with Ahmed Nureni, Director, Business Development, Qanawat.With programmatic TV as represented by VOD and YouTube poised to account...

Monetising video on Twitter: In conversation with Twitter MENA’s Benjamin Ampen

by Supriya Srinivas

October 3, 2018

Benjamin Ampen, Managing Director, Twitter MENA.Video on Twitter has emerged as a key revenue earner for the microblogging site in the region. Managing Director Benjamin Ampen of Twitter MENA explains...

The OTT solution for Saudi Broadcasting Corporation

January 29, 2018

Hisham Arafat, Managing Director of CMT Technologies.The fully customised end-to-end OTT solution for nine HD channels and six radio channels at Saudi Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), is not...

MediaGuru upgrades Huawei’s MuchTV

October 10, 2017

Sanjay Salil, Managing Director of MediaGuruHuawei, Dubai recently deployed a centralised solution to manage its media assets and push content on IPTV and OTT platforms. Huawei's...

Starz of the show

September 5, 2017

(From left) Khaled Benchouche and Saleem Bhatti, Starz Play.In the last two years, the Starz Play team has been working towards shedding its software fat and...

Zee drives digispace