e&-ADQ backed Starzplay Arabia to go live with sports channel on August 12

Dubai: The e&-ADQ owned OTT channel Starzplay Arabia is going all out for the region’s sporting audience, with the launch of a dedicated vertical, Starzplay Sports. The latter will go live on August 12, with headline events such as the Italian League Serie A, the PGA Tour, and the EuroLeague and EuroCup basketball games.

Cirkcet won’t be far behind, with Starzplay Sports to be the ‘home of Indian home series and the Pakistan Super League’.

“We are challenging the status quo of sports streaming in the region with Starzplay Sports, a platform like no other that will provide sports lovers more reasons to cheer,” said Danny Bates, Chief Commercial Officer. “We are dedicated to ensuring that the best sports entertainment is readily accessible to our subscribers. For this, we leverage cutting-edge technology to bring users a seamless, high-quality experience and the best industry low latency live streaming possible.”

Starzplay Arabia has got 2.1 million subscribers in the region, and the expectation is that many will gravitate towards the new channel too. Sports content streaming is seen as the new growth opportunity for subscription video-on-demand platforms, as subscriber growth stabilizes for the more mainstream entertainment fare.

The e& association could give further fillip for Starzplay Sports. It was earlier this year that the Abu Dhabi headquartered duo of e& and ADQ picked up the stake in the parent platform.

“As part of its long-term strategy, Starzplay is building the sports content category into one of its core products,” said a statement.