Creative Venture's deal with Kings Highway Media makes it the exclusive distributor of Impact Wrestling content in MENA. The agreement covers both linear and OTT platforms.
Dubai-based production and distribution house Creative Venture has inked a deal with New York-based global media brand distribution advisory, Kings Highway Media, to exclusively represent them in distributing entertainment from Impact Wrestling in MENA, BroadcastPro ME can reveal. The distribution exclusivity covers all platforms including linear television and over-the-top platforms.
Launched in 2002, Impact Wrestling is a global wrestling promotion, producing more than 200 hours of original programming annually in 17 languages and this is delivered to more than 120 countries. Its library includes more than 3000 hours of wrestling content. Creative Venture will now seek to broker partnerships to bring Impact Wrestlings premium content to regional audiences through broadcast networks.
Speaking about the deal to BroadcastPro ME, Badih Fattouh, Managing Director and Owner of Creative Venture said: Wrestling is a well-loved sport in MENA and Impact Wrestling already has a huge share of the market in this region online. On just YouTube, outside the US, it attracts around 38 million monthly views. It has more than 1.8 million subscribers with more than 1.4 billion total views on the platform, and that is according to YouTube channel analytics released in October 2018. At present, there is only WWE here and it sits between two broadcasters. We have the rest of the spectrum. It is time to offer more wrestling entertainment options to a wider network of broadcasters in the region because Impact Wrestling is very competitive and youth oriented. It has a lot of fresh content and has very high production values.
Key markets for Impact Wrestlings YouTube channel, beyond US, include India, UK, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Vietnam, Pakistan, Malaysia, Canada.
Its social media metrics suggest that Impact Wrestling already has a reach of more than 60 million in MENA and over 650 million globally.
Statistics from the wrestling promotion company show the breakdown: Saudi Arabia (YouTube – 24.5M; Facebook – 1M); Egypt (YouTube – 6.6M; Facebook – 2.6M); Iraq (YouTube – 3.2M, Facebook – 400K); UAE (YouTube – 11.7M, Facebook – 750K); Qatar (YouTube – 1.5M); Bahrain (YouTube – 650K); Kuwait (YouTube – 2.1M); Morocco (YouTube – 900K, Facebook – 500K) and Algeria (YouTube – 750K, Facebook – 500K).
Although the distribution of sports content is a new venture for the Dubai-based production house, the role is not new to Fattouh, who has served as Head of Sports Content Distribution when working with TWT in Beirut before.
