LISTEN: Streaming rivers of gold, battle for online heats up
Latest episode of Dirhams & Dollars, the Gulf News Business podcast
Dubai: Has your grandmother pivoted to streaming? No? Well, she’s in the minority. Seemingly every major tech firm has, in recent years, decided to get involved in video streaming in one way or another.
From Facebook signing Spanish football rights to beam to users in India, to Twitter tying up with ESPN and Bloomberg TV, to e-commerce giant Amazon spending billions of dollars on developing original content, everyone’s at it.
But what does this mean for the consumer? And in particular, the Middle Eastern consumer?
This region is highly fragmented, with more than five players offering OTT serivces, or online TV and film streaming.
How long can this last? And what is the future of original Arabic programming?
We debate whether or not an international giant such as Netflix is liable to swoop in and start producing high quality Arabic television for the native audience here. Or will local players such as OSN and Starz Play beat them to it?