STARZPLAY:
The MENA region's own streaming giant
The Abu Dhabi-based platform broke US media dominance – and now it’s sharing Arabic stories with the world
Abu Dhabi-based STARZPLAY – one of the Middle East and North-Africa (MENA) region’s leading streaming platform with 2.9 million subscribers across 19 countries – reached an impressive milestone in 2023. They released their first piece of Original Arabic programming: “Kaboos”, a five-part horror anthology based on Arabic folklore.
The show “takes tales from different parts of the Arab world and retells them in a modern setting, made by writers and talent from the region,” says STARZPLAY CEO Maaz Sheikh.
Within 48 hours of its release, “Kaboos” became the most-watched program on STARZPLAY, breaking viewership records on the platform.
The show’s success is a sign of the appetite for local, Arabic content in a globalized media landscape. It is also testament to the media ecosystem growing in Abu Dhabi.
Hollywood to Abu Dhabi
STARZPLAY was born in 2014 when Sheikh spotted an opportunity. Abu Dhabi had the fast internet required for streaming, and a young, digitally savvy audience hungry for content.
“The region’s infrastructure was ready… and the demand was there, but none of the global services had launched in the region,” says Sheikh.
With a background in both media and tech, having worked with several Silicon Valley startups before moving to Showtime Arabia (now OSN), Sheikh raised initial investment from Starz – the US cable network owned by Hollywood studio Lionsgate – and General Electric (GE).
Initially, STARZPLAY brought primetime US content to the UAE, “your favorite shows like 'Big Bang Theory', 'How I Met Your Mother',” says Sheikh.
But as it grew, the platform became more localized. An Abu Dhabi-based partnership between holding company ADQ and telecoms provider e& enterprise now holds a controlling 57% stake – their investment making STARZPLAY the third-most funded startup in MENA.
The platform expanded into sports, catering to local and expat tastes for soccer with Italian Serie A, and major cricket tournaments – including the Abu Dhabi-hosted Asia Cup and T20 World Cup.
And with “Kaboos”, it took its first step into producing original, homegrown content.
CEO of STARZPLAY
CEO of STARZPLAY
Creating original Arabic content
Sheikh says the move into production was to “take stories from this part of the world and tell them in a way… that’s compelling enough to be on a global stage.”
Just as Japanese anime has been a surprise hit on western streaming services – and STARZPLAY – the goal was to appeal to a local audience while taking Arabic stories to the world.
“Kaboos” was made possible by Abu Dhabi’s burgeoning media ecosystem, clustered on Yas Island. The show was co-produced by Image Nation Abu Dhabi – recipient of two Academy Awards, a BAFTA and an Emmy – headquartered at the Yas Creative Hub.
The Hub is a comprehensive media campus with everything from office space to sound stages and post-production suites. It is managed by twofour54, Abu Dhabi’s media-focused ‘creator of bespoke destinations’, also based on Yas Island, which offers a range of support and incentives to media creators setting up in the UAE capital. These range from access to facilities and set-up support to a 30% rebate on film production costs and networking opportunities.
CEO of STARZPLAY
CEO of STARZPLAY
The twofour54 community includes over 700 media companies, and 5,000 media professionals – a substantial talent pool that is proving invaluable to STARZPLAY’s content production.
“We need access to production facilities as well as behind-the-camera and on-screen talent,” says Sheikh, adding that Abu Dhabi offers ready access to everything the company needs.
And that goes for the technology side, too. After all, before getting into film and TV production, STARZPLAY was fundamentally a tech project.
Bridging Media And Tech
From a technological standpoint, developing a platform like STARZPLAY required two things, says Sheikh.
First, digital infrastructure capable of handling the high bandwidths streaming demands. Abu Dhabi has the highest mobile internet speeds in the world, and the 5th fastest fixed line broadband.
Second, “we needed app development talent… we found Abu Dhabi to be our hub for accessing that kind of talent,” says Sheikh.
The capital has lately emerged as a technology hub, supported by a swathe of government incentives and programs. STARZPLAY itself received support from the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) Innovation Programme to set up in the emirate. The initiative offers financial and other support to innovative startups across a range of sectors.
Other support comes from Hub71, the tech equivalent to twofour54: a dedicated tech ecosystem which provides everything startups and digital professionals need, from subsidized housing and health insurance to in-house incubator and accelerator programs.
Thanks to these initiatives – combined with up to 10-year Golden Visas for talented coders – Abu Dhabi has become a bona fide talent magnet for tech.
All in, Sheikh says, “we found Abu Dhabi to be the right hub to provide us with that ecosystem of people and technology infrastructure we needed to set up our business.”
Hollywood of the Middle East
Today’s creative industries are as tech-focused as they are content-based. With its intersecting media and technology ecosystems, Abu Dhabi is developing into the Arabic Hollywood: telling Arabic stories by Arabic people to the rest of the world. STARZPLAY is just the beginning.
CEO of STARZPLAY
CEO of STARZPLAY
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