Case Studies

February 8, 2023

Al Mashhad, which went live last month, is looking to target Arab youth with a mix of edgy content and new digital initiatives. Vijaya Cherian takes a tour of the...

From talent to telcos, CEOs discuss industry challenges

by Staff Reporter

January 23, 2023

As broadcasters look beyond the seismic shifts of the past couple of years, continued investment and new types of partnerships will be essential to assuring business continuity, industry CEOs said...

The changing face of regional content production

by Staff Reporter

January 21, 2023

This era has been one of the most impressive in the history of the Middle East, with prolific content production increasingly carving a space for itself on the world stage....

Asharq news moves up the ranks

January 14, 2023

Backed by accurate and insightful content, multiplatform Arabic-language news service Asharq is cementing its reputation in the MENA media landscape.

Living the stream

by Keith J Fernandez

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

by Keith J Fernandez

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...

Blackmagic gives ‘Kyaddala’ big boost with resolve

November 28, 2022

'Kyaddala''s intense storyline instantly won the hearts of millions of viewers in Africa for its powerful portrayal of young adult issues on the continent. We bring you a behind-the-scenes look...

A news lease of life

November 7, 2022

CNBC Arabia recently migrated its Dubai facility from SD to HD, revamped its digital offerings and made ambitious cloud investments. It has now built an IP facility in Doha with...

An ‘Aws’ome strategy

October 18, 2022

‘Sikkat Safar’, a Saudi comedy series that premiered on MBC 1 this Ramadan, was well received by GCC audiences. BroadcastPro ME spotlights the show and profiles the production house that...

Canon’s African dream

October 17, 2022

Africa’s evolving content landscape has inspired many global companies to set up shop in the region but few have gone the extra mile like Canon Central and North Africa (CCNA)....

Rising to the IP challenge

October 11, 2022

Fadaat Media recently relocated its operations from London to Qatar, just in time for the World Cup in November. In an exclusive interview with Vijaya Cherian, Ali Husseini, Director of...

‘Red carpet, not red tape’ is our mantra – Wayne Borg

October 10, 2022

Neom’s media head honcho Wayne Borg is forging ahead with a raft of infrastructural investments and initiatives intended to make Saudi Arabia’s newest development an integrated media hub with all...

OTT video delivery: Challenges and aspirations

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),...

Dubai’s own destination recording studio

September 19, 2022

The multi-million-dollar Firdaus Studio by AR Rahman at the Expo 2020 site, now called Expo City Dubai, boasts many firsts. It is the region’s only music studio to be mentored...

Al Araby partners with Telestream for HQ relocation

September 12, 2022

When Al Araby decided to relocate from its London HQ to Qatari home ground, the plan to partner with Telestream on the tech infrastructure was a big part of that...

The Cinema Aficionado

September 5, 2022

There are movie fans, there are film lovers, and then there are cinephiles – such as Butheina Kazim, founder and MD of Cinema Akil, a trailblazer in the heart of...

Why content is king – perspectives from content creators and filmmakers

August 27, 2022

Canon recently hosted a panel discussion with three well-known content creators working in different spaces – films, documentaries and social media platforms – to explore how they have evolved on...

BKP opens Neumann dedicated space in Dubai

August 18, 2022

The Neumann Studio @ BKP, a collaborative project between Sennheiser Middle East and Barry Kirsch Productions, featuring a mix of new gear, promises to take audio content creation to the...

PLG raises the stakes

June 20, 2022

Power League Gaming, MENA’s full-service gaming and esports activation company, has upped its game with a state-of-the-art $1.5m virtual production studio designed to give it an edge over the competition....

MENA sports production – The missing links

June 15, 2022

BroadcastPro ME teamed up with Abu Dhabi-based media company IP Studios to host a discussion in Arabic – a first for the market – on MENA sports production. Sarah Nathan...

Cracking cricket for MENA viewers

by N Nomani

June 13, 2022

Cricket is the world’s second most popular sport, with an estimated 2.5bn fans globally, but it hasn’t quite reached its full potential in the Middle East. At the IP Studios...

Striking the right note

May 23, 2022

A brand-new music recording studio in Dubai has become the go-to destination for many musicians and podcast hosts. With an ambience designed to inspire creativity, state-of-the-art infrastructure and a range...

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

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...

Driving good storytelling

May 9, 2022

Lina Matta has plenty of notches to her belt, from starting as a reporter in her home country, to producing documentaries in the US, to her current role as Director...

The big move

April 14, 2022

Seven years after opening a small office with five employees in Dubai’s Jumeirah Lake Towers, Augustus Media has moved into a 1,100sqm facility at Dubai Production City. BroadcastPro ME takes...

Bringing virtual production to the Middle East

April 11, 2022

In 2020, 'The Mandalorian' marked a paradigm shift for filmmakers and producers. Inspired by its trailblazing production that saw an impressive combination of extended reality and virtual production, Fractal Studio...

Advanced Media adopts structural changes to achieve vision

by Vijaya Cherian and Sarah Nathan

April 4, 2022

From a small office in Bur Dubai to three facilities in the UAE, a service centre in Egypt and a full-fledged showroom and service operation in Saudi Arabia, Advanced Media...

Keeping the stakes high

March 29, 2022

When Saudi Sports Company (SSC) wanted an innovative production and broadcast solution to take some of its less exposed events to air, it turned to a cloud-based set-up. In cooperation...

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...

Game for more

March 14, 2022

January’s Super Cup wasn’t just a thrilling football match between two stalwart teams, it marked the debut of a number of exciting firsts on the UAE football scene, from buggy...

Gearing up for global expansion

March 8, 2022

Rotana Media Group is ambitiously upgrading various parts of its facility in Egypt with state-of-the-art infrastructure, as part of a larger plan to move more aggressively into global markets. BroadcastPro...

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...

Women on a mission

by Vijaya Cherian and Sarah Nathan

February 21, 2022

Powerful female voices are emerging on the MEA film landscape, and their stories are receiving recognition and applause across the globe. Canon brought together a small group at Expo 2020...

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...

Breaking the mould with ‘The Red Ape Family’

February 7, 2022

An NFT-starring sitcom – conceived, designed and produced in Dubai – has gone viral online and made $1m even before its official screening. BroadcastPro ME, in an exclusive interview with...

Surviving the new world order

by Vijaya Cherian and Nusrat Ali

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

by Kalyani Gopinath

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...

Game changer

January 17, 2022

‘Eish Al Tahdi’ (Live the Challenge) is a brand-new gaming championship that launched on SBC last month and aims to woo the Kingdom’s youth back to traditional TV. Created by...

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

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

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...

Creating the right exposure

November 9, 2021

Six years ago, the Expo 2020 site was an empty desert wasteland. Today, it is home to some of the finest buildings, a smart IT setup and more importantly, a...

The Big Pitch

October 21, 2021

'The Alexandria Killings' will be produced under the Yalla Yalla banner, with globally renowned writers Terry George and Mariam Naoum co-writing the film. But before it took this fascinating turn,...

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...

A new dimension

September 20, 2021

Iraq’s Al Sharqiya Group, known for its news and general entertainment channels, recently built and kitted out a brand-new TV studio complex in Erbil. In an exclusive interview with BroadcastPro...

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...

Bahrain Radio’s digital makeover

June 14, 2021

While most of the GCC countries have put their broadcast projects on hold, Bahrain’s Ministry of Information Affairs (MIA) released a number of tenders over the last year for massive...

Monetising sports thoroughly and innovatively

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...

Game on!

May 17, 2021

BroadcastPro Middle East's inaugural virtual sports broadcasting conference explored how the arrival of OTT and the more recent Covid-19 lockdown have impacted sport and disrupted traditional methods of production, rights...

Content production in MENA: Digging deeper into the dynamics

by Guest Columnist

April 13, 2021

The Arabic content market is a complex labyrinth that requires a fair degree of expertise to navigate, and the entry of new platforms has added to this complexity. Content expert...

MENA’s Content King

April 8, 2021

One of the biggest MENA production houses has remained resilient in the face of the lockdown that crippled the production industry worldwide last year. Cedars Art Production (Sabbah Brothers) CEO...

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