🧑‍🎨 Banijay Launches a Marketplace for Creators

Creators can now sell and adapt formats worldwide | Streaming in Short – W50

Dec 12, 2025

This week, I cover Banijay France launching POC, a new marketplace for digital formats, Paramount’s Warner Bros bid backed by Gulf investors, and Disney’s move into AI while setting clear rules to protect its content.

🎬 Banijay France Launches “POC”, a New Digital Formats Marketplace

👉 Banijay France has launched POC (Proof of Concept), a global platform where content creators can upload, sell, and monetize their original digital formats.

📍 Creators can protect their IP in a secure environment, while others can legally buy these formats and adapt them locally. Advertisers can also access the platform to find proven, sponsor-ready formats for their campaigns.

💡 This move shows how digital-first content is becoming more structured, with creator formats starting to travel and scale globally, much like TV formats did before.

🎬 Paramount’s Warner Bros Bid Brings Gulf Investors Together

👉 Paramount’s bid for Warner Bros. Discovery is backed by $24B from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar, forming a rare alliance between Gulf investors.

📍 The 3 countries are expected to provide nearly 60% of the equity needed for the deal. Their interest is driven by access to major Hollywood IP and by long-term goals to diversify their economies through media, entertainment, and global influence.

💡 This highlights how strategic MENA has become in global media financing. Gulf capital is now deciding who owns Hollywood’s biggest studios.

Today, most platforms in MENA use global CDNs to deliver movies, series and live sports. But the future of streaming in the region may be all about local delivery. Imagine this 👇

✅ Fewer errors
🖼️ Better picture quality
📍 More stable streaming
⚡️ Videos that start faster
🔒 Data that stays local and protected

This is becoming more important as streaming grows fast, and global outages continue to affect platforms everywhere.

The good news? CDN companies are already building this future in MENA.

With stronger networks, more local delivery points and better tools to keep platforms fast and reliable 🙌

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📺 Disney Embraces AI, and Sets Clear Rules

What happened?

👉 Disney announced a $1B partnership with OpenAI, letting users create short videos with licensed Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars characters on Sora. Disney also sent a legal warning to Google, accusing it of using Disney content to train AI without permission.

Key details:

Disney will allow fan-made short clips using its characters, starting in early 2026.
The deal shows Disney sees AI as a new way to license IP and engage fans.
The studio has also taken action against other AI companies using its content.

Why it matters?

🎯 Disney’s position is clear: AI is fine when IP is licensed and protected, not when it is used for free. This could decide how studios work with AI in the future.

🏟️ SPORTS: Streaming Takes Over from Pay TV

As pay TV declines, live sports are becoming the main battleground for streaming platforms.

Leagues like the NFL, NBA, and MLB are now fully available on streaming services such as Peacock, Amazon, Netflix, Apple TV+, and ESPN. For platforms, sports are key to gaining subscribers, keeping them engaged, and attracting advertisers.

📺 YOUTUBE: YouTube TV Launches Cheaper Genre-Based Plans

YouTube TV will roll out new lower-priced plans, letting users subscribe to specific genres like sports, news, kids, or entertainment.

A Sports Plan will include major channels such as ESPN, Fox Sports, and NBC Sports, with extra add-ons like NFL Sunday Ticket available separately.

🇮🇳 INDIA: JioHotstar Doubles Down on South India

JioHotstar is investing $445M in South Indian content after viewership surged, with watch time up 160% in the region.

South India now drives a large share of viewing on the platform, with strong growth on connected TVs and high demand for returning series and local stories.

📱 MICRO DRAMA: COL Group Builds a Dedicated Studio

COL Group has unveiled a new microdrama studio in Macao, built specifically for short-form and vertical series production.

The studio includes more than 30 ready-to-use sets and allows multiple shows to be filmed at the same time, helping produce hundreds of microdrama series faster.

📡 TECH: MediaKind and Harmonic Join Forces

MediaKind is acquiring Harmonic’s Video business for $145M, creating one of the largest independent streaming-infrastructure platforms.

The combined company will focus fully on video, with strong cloud and hardware capabilities, and aims to deliver more reliable and advanced streaming technology to platforms worldwide.

🇦🇪 DUBAI: Dubai Motorcycle Film Festival Returns for Its 5th Edition

The Dubai Motorcycle Film Festival will return on 13 December 2025 at Warehouse Four in Al Quoz, celebrating motorcycle culture through films, documentaries, and short films from around the world.

Now in its fifth year, the festival brings together filmmakers, riders, and enthusiasts, with international short films, community rides, and special screenings highlighting storytelling, freedom, and the global motorcycle community.

🏡 Million Dollar Listing UAE from Georges Sfeir (STARZPLAY, 2 episodes): Five top brokers hustle for massive deals across the UAE’s luxury market as competition rises, risks grow, and every opportunity could lead to a breakthrough.

Million Dollar Listing UAE returns with ‘No Bling. All Real.’ Season 2

💥 14 years ago, Black Mirror premiered on Channel 4 in the UK. Created by Charlie Brooker, the series introduced viewers to dark, thought-provoking stories exploring how technology can shape, and sometimes break, modern society. Black Mirror quickly became one of the most influential TV series of its generation.