TV MEA MIPTV 2017

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APRIL 2017

MIPTV EDITION

Format Trends / STARZ Play’s Maaz Sheikh

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CONTENTS

Stream On There has been a seemingly endless procession of on-demand services launching across the Middle East and Africa as of late, but whether all these platforms make dollars (and sense) is just starting to be seen.

Ricardo Seguin Guise Publisher Anna Carugati Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani Editor Kristin Brzoznowski Executive Editor Joanna Padovano Tong Managing Editor Sara Alessi Associate Editor Victor L. Cuevas Production & Design Director Phyllis Q. Busell Art Director Simon Weaver Online Director Dana Mattison Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Nathalia Lopez Sales & Marketing Assistant Andrea Moreno Business Affairs Manager

Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development TV MEA © 2017 WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, #1207 New York, NY 10010 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.tvmea.ws

The prospects are certainly looking bright. According to Digital TV Research, the SVOD sector in MEA is forecast to have nearly 20 million paying subscribers by 2021, a fivefold increase from 2016. Netflix is expected to reach 3.37 million subs in the MEA region by 2021, followed by icflix with 1.85 million, iROKO with 1.55 million, STARZ Play with 1.39 million and ShowMax with 992,000.

“Although the top five international players will enjoy rapid growth, they will account for less than half the region’s SVOD subscribers by 2021—showing that, despite some signs of congestion already, there will still be room for new entrants,” said Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research.

Among those new entrants, iflix recently secured a cushy $90 million-plus in funding to support its expansion into the Middle East, Africa and additional markets in Asia. The investors include the international broadcasting behemoth Liberty Global, along with Zain, a mobile and data-services operator in the Middle East and Africa with which iflix recently established the joint venture iflix Arabia.

Last November, STARZ Play scored a new multi-milliondollar funding investment for its anytime-anywhere service in the Middle East and North Africa. In this issue of TV MEA, Maaz Sheikh, the CEO and co-founder of STARZ Play, talks about the programming decisions that are shaping the subscription offering. He also discusses the importance of forming alliances with telecom operators to overcome the credit-card penetration issues that affect much of the region.

“Alliances” is a buzzword that also pops up in our indepth report on the formats business across MEA. As many markets in the region are facing challenging times due to oil prices, political issues and other economic factors, producers and distributors are being innovative in how they approach the production and funding of formats; creative collaborations are top of mind.

As the SVOD market in the Middle East and Africa matures, and streaming becomes part of the daily media diet for many viewers across the region, more original commissioning is sure to come from these OTT and digital players—a development TV MEA will continue to follow.

—Kristin Brzoznowski

FEATURE 6 LEARNING CURVE Despite a challenging environment, distributors are finding new ways to grow their format businesses in the region.

INTERVIEW

12 STARZ Play’s Maaz Sheikh STARZ Play is growing its subscriber base across the region with exclusive shows and a responsive user interface. CEO and co-founder Maaz Sheikh discusses the way forward for the OTT service.

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FremantleMedia International “FremantleMedia has something for the whole family, from incredible drama to groundbreaking gaming and a high-stakes cooking competition.”

American Gods / Lost in Time / The Next TV Chef The book-based American Gods centers on the impending war between the forgotten old gods of myth and the new American gods of money, technology and media.

“American Gods is one of the most hotly anticipated dramas of 2017, a beautifully crafted adaptation of the hugely successful Neil Gaiman fantasy novel,” says Anahita Kheder, FremantleMedia International’s senior VP for the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Europe.

“Ambitious and enthralling, it will resonate with viewers across the globe.” Lost in Time is a family-entertainment format that follows three contestants as they are transported to different eras and compete in various challenges, while The Next TV Chef is a talent-show format searching for television’s next big culinary star. “With Lost in Time we are partnering with Norway-based interactive mixed reality pioneer The Future Group for a game show like nothing else on television—the anti-VR, incredibly immersive celebration of technology and art combining to create unparalleled viewing experiences for the audience and new ways for them to engage from their living rooms in this cutting-edge competition,” says Kheder. “The Next TV Chef lets you watch the evolution of a new culinary superstar battling it out to become the host of their very own TV show.”

JeemTV/Baraem Badr: Legend of the Pearls / Saham Adventures / Monskey The children’s channels JeemTV and Baraem are exclusively on the beIN platform. Baraem is the first Arabic channel dedicated to preschool children, and it has become the leading service in Arabic for children aged between 2 to 6 years old in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Dedicated to developing learning and creative skills within the younger audience, JeemTV has an array of international and local programming.

“We carefully follow all new children’s programs at the global level, and our participation at MIPTV is a perfect opportunity to cooperate with partners from different countries to fulfill our need for content that we provide to our audience,” says Saad Al-Hudaifi, acting executive general manager and channels director. “We will present this year Badr: Legend of the Pearls, an animated series that was launched at MIPCOM 2015. In addition to this, there is a new in-house production, Saham Adventures,” which is named after the mascot of the Jeem Cup international football tournament.

Saham Adventures sheds light on important topics related to health, sports, innovation and educational values, in addition to promoting positive manners such as cooperation, teamwork and good morals. Another highlight is the 3Danimated, non-dialogue series Monskey, which “delivers ideas and situations that enhance children’s innovation and creativity,” Al-Hudaifi says.

—Anahita Kheder

American Gods

“We are passionate about bringing to our audiences high-quality comprehensive and edutainment content, which fulfills the needs of Arab children and future generations.”

—Saad Al-Hudaifi

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Format producers and distributors are finding creative ways to work through the current economic challenges in the Middle East and Africa. By Kristin Brzoznowski bevy of Arab celebrities and socialites, members of the press, fashion bloggers and social-media influencers flocked to Dubai Design District to witness the live finale of Project Runway Middle East. It was a starfilled scene that rivaled even the most stylish events at New York Fashion Week, which plays host to the top designers’ runway shows on the original U.S. version of the hit FremantleMedia series. The glossy production, immense glamour and successful ratings of MBC’s Middle Eastern adaptation are a testament to the opportunities that can be found in the region by format producers and distributors, many of whom are also exploring prospects within the African market.

It was just about three years ago when FremantleMedia International ramped up its commitment to the emerging markets in the Middle East, Africa and Southeastern Europe by expanding the purview of its Dubai office. Armed with megahits such as The X Factor, Got Talent and Idols, the company’s format business has been “the driving force” for sales out of this hub, says Anahita Kheder, FremantleMedia’s senior VP for the region. “It was the primary reason for establishing an emerging markets office in Dubai. Formats continue to be a very strong business for us, but unfortunately, over the past 12 to 18 months, the markets that sit under the Dubai office have suffered in one way or another.” Kheder cites declining oil prices and instability due to political unrest as the primary factors that have led to economic decline across the region.

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“Angola was a huge market for us in Africa,” she says. “It skyrocketed about two years ago, and we had a formidable partner there. All eyes were on Portuguese-speaking Africa, but at some point early last year, the market froze up completely. They are now dealing with a severe economic crisis due to the oil crash.”

Nigeria was also considered a large up-and-coming market for format sales, Kheder says. “We had some very serious partners there, and some of our big shows sold into it. That market, too, has dried up. In South Africa, the rand has declined [in value]. In general, Africa has been plagued with some economic challenges that go far beyond television.

The first thing that gets bumped, because of consumer spending, is ad revenues. Once ad revenue dwindles, television goes into a holding pattern, including pay TV. We have felt that pinch.”

BRACED FOR CHANGE Kheder reports that a similar situation has taken hold in the Middle East, where oil prices have had a sweeping effect, particularly in Saudi Arabia. “The ad revenue in the [Mideast] TV market is very much focused toward Saudi consumers. With the Saudi economy being affected the way it has been, that knock-on effect applies. Some of our biggest clients are cutting back on their budgets. Everyone is just trying to weather the storm. The predictions are that we will start to see the light at the end of the tunnel in 2018.”

Despite some apparent challenges, broadcasters in both the Middle East and Africa have continued to renew their flagship formats and are selectively commissioning new concepts—they are just being more discerning in doing so.

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Jane Dockery, the senior VP of formats, international distribution, at Sony Pictures Television, reports having “quite a healthy format-licensing business across the region with a number of our shows.

“The Middle East has been more of a developed market in recent years, and it still continues to grow,” she says.

“The growth at the moment is in Africa; we’re seeing a lot of demand there for local programming.”

FAMILY TIME

Indian dramas have done well in MEA, leaving ZEE optimistic about the prospect of format deals on shows like Zindagi Ki Mehek.

Dockery says that Ramadan is the key time when the production cycle kicks into high gear in the Middle East.

“That’s when everyone is off, fasting for a month, and the family spends time watching television together. Advertisers spend as much of their budget in that one month of Ramadan as they do throughout the rest of the year! There’s a massive boom in the demand for local programming during that time.”

In the Middle East, the most established areas for format licensing are Egypt, Lebanon and the GCC countries, Dockery says. “They will often get together to co-fund expensive productions like the big talent shows or dramas. They will pick projects together and split the production budget, then manage the windows so that they are all getting behind the big formats.

We did that recently in the Middle East with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? It was shown on OSN and on CBC in Egypt. That

way, the channels can come together and share the cost of the production and buy the biggest shows on the market.”

Sony’s catalog is home to a number of big, evergreen format hits, including Dragons’ Den. The show is particularly hot right now in Africa, where there is a rise in the middle class and a focus on entrepreneurialism. M-Net has done two seasons of Shark Tank South Africa, and KBC in Kenya recently launched its first. The format was also previously licensed in Nigeria, and Dockery says there are discussions taking place in other African markets right now as well. In the Middle East, Dragons’ Den is coming back this year with Rotana’s Khalijia channel, which is based in Saudi Arabia but broadcasts across the region. The channel targets an affluent audience, which is one of the reasons that this finance-focused series has been particularly appealing.

Another one of Sony’s evergreen formats, Millionaire, has been performing equally well across both markets.

“Generally speaking, quiz is starting to make a comeback across those territories, so we’re expecting to do more deals there for Millionaire this year,” says Dockery.

SCRIPTING SUCCESS Sony is also exploring opportunities in the MEA markets to exploit its slate of scripted formats. “In the Middle East, buyers are looking for drama adaptations rather than sitcoms,” Dockery says. “There are more one-hour slots there, rather than half-hours, which is why sitcoms don’t work as well. In Africa, they’re looking at sitcoms very closely and we’re having conversations about some of our classics. Scripted is definitely a booming genre across the whole region.”

Adam Barth, senior regional sales manager at DRG, echoes this sentiment. He says that in the Middle East, “things have picked up quite substantially in the last six months” for scripted formats. “There is a lot of commissioning coming out of Lebanon that is being funded by pan-Middle Eastern broadcasters, like the MBCs of the world. That seems to be where a lot of the producers are based as well.”

Barth also says that producers are getting much more aggressive in how they are tackling scripted projects. “When they come on board, it moves much quicker from option to license, and the producers are willing to take a bit more of a punt in investing on their end to localize the scripts.”

GMA Worldwide is looking to bring some of its hit Filipino dramas to partners in the Middle East and Africa for local treatments. Manuel Paolo J. Laurena, the company’s senior sales manager, lists Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and Zambia among the countries that stand out for sales prospects.

“We have not yet sold formats into the Middle East or Africa; however, the greatest opportunity for format sales is in Africa because GMA’s English-dubbed dramas are already well accepted there,” he says. “Recently, broadcasters have shown interest in French-dubbed dramas, and some are interested in dubbing the content in their own language.”

GMA’s dramas focus on “romance, love for family, the courage to strive for the best in the pursuit of happiness and justice,” which are universal themes to which audiences in any market can relate, Laurena says.

That GMA has linear channels in the Middle East helps create awareness in that market for the types of programming that GMA Worldwide is offering up.

The situation is similar at Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEE), which has channels in both the Middle East

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and Africa. “There are audiences out there already viewing our content on these channels, watching Indian series that are dubbed, adapted, edited and broadcast for Middle Eastern and African audiences,” says Sunita Uchil, ZEE’s chief business officer for global syndication and production and international ad sales.

NEW HORIZONS ZEE has also already been licensing finished content from India into both of these territories for a long time, which is why the Middle East and Africa are firmly on the company’s radar as it steps up its format efforts. ZEE recently launched the Z Format Factory, an incubator to develop new formats, and Uchil says that “both of these markets are ripe for our kind of content.” She notes that there is a high affinity for Indian programming in the Middle East as well as in Africa.

Regarding scripted formats, Uchil believes that ZEE’s family dramas show a lot of promise for resonating with Middle Eastern buyers. “In Africa, entertainment is looking very hopeful because [people there] are very gregarious and funloving. Dance is a big form of expression there, so we’re looking at Dance India Dance to be adapted in Africa. We’d love to launch Dance Africa Dance—that’s our aspiration; we want to see the continent dancing with our dance formats!”

She recognizes that there are challenges to making inroads with formats in MEA, notably, that the broadcasters that can afford to invest in adaptations “tend to fall back on the big format names and established shows. That’s something we will have to work our way around in order to find the right landing spot.”

Indeed, FremantleMedia’s so-called “holy trinity” of formats—Idols, X Factor and Got Talent—have been available in the Middle East for a number of years and continue to get recommissioned. “Our partner for those shows, MBC, is continuing to invest in those primary formats,” says Kheder.

“They are revenue drivers for us all! They’re not just the holy trinity for FremantleMedia; they play a very critical role in the MBC grid.”

MIND THE GAP Kheder points out that Africa does not have the same sort of commissioning model that is common in the Middle East. “In Nigeria, for example, nothing is necessarily commissioned by a broadcaster; there is essentially a businessperson with an interest in television and entertainment who will invest in the license and production of one of the ‘big three’ formats. They have to go out and buy airtime, as well as fund the whole production with advertising revenues. It’s an incredibly difficult model! In markets like that, we have seen our shows get put on hold until the gap funding can be found.

“There are a lot of very creative ways that we’re trying to get everything back on track,” Kheder continues. “But that’s the difference between having a straightforward commissioning partner and strong broadcaster in the Middle East, versus the model of having to buy airtime in some of the key parts of Africa—that has slowed down some of those legacy programs.”

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GMA is looking to supplement its program sales in the region with format deals on dramas like My Destiny.

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In addition to a wider breadth of genres that are being looked at locally, formats are currently being evaluated for a broader range of time slots in both markets. ZEE’s Uchil points to Friday and Saturday nights in the Middle East and Saturdays and Sundays in Africa as prime placements for local adaptations.

“For the big titles, broadcasters will look at filling in the primetime slots, but there could be other formats, perhaps about food, which they might slot into another daypart. It depends on a number of factors, such as whether you have a sponsor, what kind of target audience you’re looking at and if that audience is going to have a larger viewership in a different time band.”

DRG is home to formats from the Strix catalog, which features a wealth of documentary-style series that are perfect for access prime, according to Barth. He believes that these shows are particularly attractive for buyers in Africa because they are cost-effective to produce and can be done at a high volume.

Overall, Barth is enthusiastic about the prospects for further format sales—both scripted and non-scripted—in MEA. He believes that taking a creative approach to both production and financing is going to be key for future success.

“For 2017, we’re excited to be speaking to producers who are willing to do projects differently,” Barth says. “The world of advertising is ever changing, especially with the SVOD and OTT platforms that seem to be popping up in these two regions in particular almost every day. These platforms don’t necessarily have the budgets to commission a massive series, but we are actively in conversations with producers in the region to come up with new business models to be able to produce a show and then license it to these platforms. This will give these new digital platforms the opportunity to get exclusive content and will also allow producers to work with new partners.”

GETTING CREATIVE Viacom has brought the Comedy Central Presents stand-up comedy format to the Middle East on OSN.

heritage game shows, including Family Feud, The Price Is Right and Let’s Make a Deal. Also, there’s a Middle Eastern version in the works with Media Twist for My Mom Cooks Better Than Yours, and the dating format Take Me Out has made its way onto LBC in Lebanon. “Selling a dating show into the Middle East was quite astounding,” Kheder says. “It has worked incredibly well, though. We’ve also sold the same show in Africa. We’re seeing that formats and genres that perhaps would have been overlooked before are now being considered—which is great.”

FUNNY BONE As the nuances of humor can be quite specific culturally, comedy is among the categories that seem to work best when given a local spin. Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) has been adapting some of its successful comedic formats for regional audiences. Most recently, Comedy Central launched its first Middle Eastern production, a stand-up series titled Comedy Central Presents.

“The show features more than 30 Middle Eastern comics from around the region performing in English and Arabic,” says Amalia Martinez de Velasco, the senior VP of entertainment brands for VIMN Southern and Western Europe, Africa and the Middle East. “We are also currently producing localized versions of Ridiculousness for six of our territories, including our first Middle Eastern variant, which will air on Comedy Central this spring. The show features local hosts and celebrity guests putting their own spin on the well-known clip format.”

FremantleMedia’s Kheder agrees that being innovative is imperative when licensing formats in this part of the world.

“Some of the biggest opportunities are in working directly with the funders, who are the brands, and having more direct dialog with them and bringing them in as partners,” she says. “We’re not reinventing the wheel with this, but there are obvious opportunities considering the lack of risk-taking right now by the major players. Everyone is more open to bringing a third party on board to invest and help fund the format business.

There are a lot of advertising agencies that are now setting up divisions dedicated to content funding and production. The fact that they are trying to put a foot in the door and have a say in the game is interesting and a real opportunity.”

Sony’s Dockery sees a few new areas of opportunity going forward for the format business in both the Middle East and Africa. “From a content perspective, we are focusing on the scripted genre at the moment—not only in selling formats in the region but also in the value of selling those finished programs. We’re looking for opportunities to create English-language programming in Africa and then to sell it across the entire continent and beyond. Same in the Middle East; there’s a very healthy market for selling Arabic prints within the region.”

In addition to securing sales, Dockery says that Sony is scouting for format concepts that are coming out of the Middle East and Africa. “We think that that is a nascent area.

We’re watching it closely—very big ideas can come out of small markets. We’re keen to work with local producers to spot new formats that can travel.”

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With widening broadband access and high mobile penetration rates, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is seen as the next great growth opportunity for OTT platforms. And STARZ Play is looking to tap into the advantages of having been in the space early. Launched in 2015 with the backing of Starz and Parsifal Entertainment Group, STARZ Play is available in almost 20 markets across the MENA region. In addition to premium scripted series from Starz, the SVOD platform has locked up the rights to a huge array of U.S. network television titles as well as plenty of Hollywood movies. Sitting alongside those are locally sourced shows from the region. The CEO and co-founder of STARZ Play is Maaz Sheikh, who is using his experience in both digital media and pay TV—he previously worked at regional platform

By Mansha Daswani OSN—to deliver a compelling subscription offering to viewers.

TV MEA: What were the biggest obstacles in getting the service up and running?

SHEIKH: One of our biggest learnings was that this is the type of consumer service where you have to be perfect or near perfect in all aspects, from the user interface to content to billing and payment options to digital marketing. They’re either moving from a linear environment that works or from YouTube or Netflix to your environment, so there’s no room for errors. Being a start-up, we were fortunate enough to have Starz’s backing, financial and strategic. That helped us quite a bit in terms of getting the product and the service right. We developed the platform and the service from scratch, optimized for this region. So Arabic interface, Arabic subtitles, but also for Northern Africa a French interface and French content.

TV MEA: Given the credit-card penetration issues, how important have your telco alliances been?

SHEIKH: That is one of our strongest advantages. We are partnered with 13 telecom operators. Netflix is not partnered with a single one yet. That makes a big difference. As you said, the credit-card penetration is fairly low, especially when you move out of the Gulf countries. On top of that, the consumer behavior is very mobile-centric. The majority of our sign-ups, 80 percent, happen on mobile. And people will explore the service through a mobile browser.

TV MEA: What do you see as some of your other key advantages?

SHEIKH: We discussed methods of payment, that’s extremely important. We think we have a significant advantage there.

The next element is that of platform ubiquity. This is where Netflix, being a major global player, has a strong advantage— they’re available across all platforms, from Apple TV and Samsung Smart TVs to PlayStation and Chromecast. We’re trying to catch up to that platform ubiquity. We think that’s

an important element of the service. On devices, we are catching up to Netflix. Where we have an advantage is we’re also available on operators’ IPTV set-top boxes. So a customer connected to an Etisalat broadband home has a settop box at home and on that they can access the STARZ Play service. Same for Saudi Telecom, same for Ooredoo TV in Qatar and so on. And the third advantage is how we’re localizing the content, both from Hollywood as well as from an Arabic point of view. Netflix’s strategy for original content is great for a big part of the world, but perhaps those series are not as relevant in this part of the world. Where they’re focused on making the next The Crown or House of Cards, for us shows like Grey’s Anatomy or The Flash or Lucifer, your mainstream Hollywood series, combined with the premium titles that we’re bringing to the region from Starz, like Black Sails and Power, are doing extremely well. This combination is working for us.

TV MEA: Are you buying content from the region as well?

SHEIKH: We are catering to a pan-Arab audience. We have Gulf Arabic content that’s produced in Saudi Arabia and UAE, in Kuwait. About one-third [of the regional programming] is Gulf-centric. And then there’s another one-third that is Egyptian but has a combination of Egyptian and panArab casts. The third bucket is content produced in the Levant region, so Lebanese and Syrian casts, produced mostly in Lebanon. We haven’t gone into movies yet, but we are licensing TV shows, dramas and comedies, from these three Arabic markets.

TV MEA: What role does kids’ content play on the service?

SHEIKH: It’s evolving. We’re only two years old, so part of it is we’re still learning. Our audience tends to be 18- to 35year-olds, so we do well on older teen shows like The Flash, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. Anything younger than that, 4/17 WORLD SCREEN 445

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In addition to Starz originals like Power, STARZ Play features series and movies from third-party studios, including several within the MENA region.

we haven’t seen very strong traction there, even though we have some very strong kids’ content.

TV MEA: What kinds of things did you take into consideration when designing your user interface (UI)? And how are you helping users find the content that will interest them?

SHEIKH: You can go back 20 years and the pay-TV operators would say, there are hundreds of channels but how do we connect the content with the consumer? And I think in the OTT world it’s no different. A lot of times consumers are not looking past the first few carousels they see. We do a couple of things. The first is that we’ve experimented a lot.

We record, in the cloud, customer sessions and their interactions with our apps and our browser. As they move their mouse around or they browse through carousels, we track their behavior, trying to understand: are they going past the first screen, are they clicking on the button to scroll right, do they even see the button? Based on the heat maps of those sessions, we change our UI. We’re constantly fine-tuning our user interface. We also do a lot of A/B testing. Once we decide we’re going to make a certain change, we will make it and direct some of the traffic there and see how it performs.

If it’s doing well, then we’ll roll it out more. That’s user interface optimization. Those two things helped us a lot in terms of getting the user interface right. In terms of content curation and presenting the content, we’ve learned and observed what leaders like Netflix and Amazon are doing. I won’t say our recommendation systems are as advanced and sophisticated as Netflix’s, but we’re getting there. We’re fine-tuning our recommendation engine, and we have a personalization service. You can create different profiles within your account, and within each profile the service is personalized to you as an individual.

TV MEA: How are you using viewing data to shape your programming decisions?

SHEIKH: It’s extremely important. Coming from a linear, paytelevision background, I think the content acquisition business is no longer an art form. Once you start from a certain hypothesis and you start with a certain number of hours, after

that the next 2,000 or 3,000 hours you buy is mostly based on your analytics and data insights. You have to be holistic about your analytics and the message you are getting from that data. We see extreme value in that and we let that guide our acquisitions. There were certain aspects of our initial content acquisitions that we didn’t get right. As we saw content consumption and the patterns, we realized where we needed to focus more, and we did that. For example, initially when we launched we didn’t have as many mainstream network shows on our service, but, in addition to Starz, over time we’ve added U.S. network series from Twentieth Century Fox, CBS, Disney, Paramount, Showtime, Sony and Warner Bros. and our consumption has increased quite a bit. We let data drive everything. But it’s not just about consumption either. One of the things we do is try to differentiate between what drives customer acquisitions, what drives consumption and then what reduces churn. These are three different things. For example, we will put out creative for Vikings, The Flash and Black Sails and we’ll experiment with different creative in different markets. Black Sails might do well in UAE, while The Flash does well in Saudi and Vikings does extremely well in North Africa.

We experiment with creative to track the impressions and the click-through rates and to track from click-through to subscription. Which assets are working in terms of new customer acquisition? Same for churn. If people are consuming certain series, certain box sets, are they less likely to churn? We’ll then go after more of that kind of content.

TV MEA: What expansion opportunities are you eyeing in the near term?

SHEIKH: We think the Middle East and North Africa has been fairly untapped. There’s a big underserved market between MBC as free-to-air and OSN as the premium pay-TV network. We don’t necessarily see ourselves only as a digital VOD service provider. We see ourselves as affordable, premium television that happens to be digital. There a big market to serve. Opportunistically we’re looking at countries beyond the Middle East. There are a few options that we’re looking at; once the economics make sense, we’ll be announcing those. For now, we’re focused on the MENA region.

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