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AMBASSADORS of ARABIC
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Ninetnine, a content distribution company helmed by Samir Zehani and Adel Hamla, has successfully catered to North African and Arabic audiences in France and Europe, with strategically designed TV packages that have raked in more than 100,000 subscribers. The duo, looking to replicate that success in other markets, signed a massive content distribution deal in the US in July and, more recently, with MBC Group in Dubai – spotlighting them as disrupters in the Arabic content space. In an exclusive interview with Vijaya Cherian, Ninetnine’s co-founders share their story, strategy, new deals and 2022 plans We hear that you’ve just signed a big deal with MBC Group for Europe? Samir Zehani: Indeed, we are very proud to announce that Ninetnine is the exclusive distribution partner of MBC channels in Europe via various platforms including IPTV, OTT and the cable networks. Building on our success in creating value for Arabic content abroad, MBC trusted our vision and will join the biggest Arabic TV bouquet in the world, le Bouquet Maghreb, that we manage with our partner Thema/Canal+. When did you launch Ninetnine, and how does le Bouquet Maghreb fit into your journey? Adel Hamla: Ninetnine was launched three years ago with the objective of better distributing ethnic content, mainly Arabic content. After long experiences in the corporate media world working for the likes of Orange Group and MBC, we wanted to bridge gaps
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that we have seen over the years in the distribution landscape. Our vision is to simply entertain people everywhere. We are passionate about what we do. So we started with Arabic content by disrupting the existing set-up. We noticed, for instance, that there were no good TV bouquets that catered to the Maghreb community in Europe, which is home to approximately 15m North Africans (4m households), of which 8m live in France alone. With a good understanding of Arab audiences both on home ground and in Europe, and backed by strong data analytics, we set out to address the entertainment needs of that segment. We first did this with Orange, and then joined forces with Thema/Canal+ Group in 2019 to create the biggest Arabic TV bouquet in the world, le Bouquet Maghreb. In both cases, we succeeded in attracting 100k-plus subscribers to their packages and brought in a whole new segment of viewers to their platforms.
