🧩 Crunchyroll Joins Yango Play
Can anime help Yango Play scale even faster? | Streaming in Short – W20
This week, we cover the partnership between Yango Play and Crunchyroll, the re-rebranding of HBO Max, and why TCL doubles down on MENA.
🧩 PARTNERS: Crunchyroll is now part of Yango Play lineup
👉 Yango Play, the all-in-one entertainment app launched in MENA last year, just teamed up with Crunchyroll, the top global anime platform. It now has its own dedicated section inside the app, next to Live TV, Music, and Yasmina.
In the UAE, users can choose between two plans:
Yango Play: movies, music, and games for AED 29.99/month
Yango + Crunchyroll: all of that plus anime for AED 49.99/month
💡 After deals with STARZPLAY and NOOR Play, Yango Play is building a strong bundle strategy to grow fast in MENA. Full details on my Monday MENA insights next week.
🔁 RE-REBRANDING: HBO Max is back
👉 Max is getting a new name or rather, its old one. Warner Bros. Discovery is rebranding its D2C platform back to HBO Max this summer.
💡 This move shows WBD is refocusing on quality over quantity, and leaning on the strength of the HBO name. It’s part of a larger plan to hit 150 million subscribers by 2026.
🖥️ TCL steps up in MENA
What happened?
👉 TCL, the world’s No. 2 TV brand, just made three big moves in MENA:
Al Jazeera English is launching a FAST channel on TCL Channel next month, not just in MENA, but also in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
TCL & Sawa Rights Management signed a new deal to bring even more FAST channels to the region.
ArabyAds will now manage TCL ad inventory across its smart TVs in MENA, giving brands premium ad space.
Why it matters?
TCL Channel quietly launched last year with mostly global content. But now, it's going local, just like Samsung TV Plus did few months ago.
🤓 What’s next? A real opportunity for local and global FAST channels to grow their footprint in MENA. I’ll cover new channel launches in my upcoming FAST in MENA series.
📈 USA: Netflix Ads tier hits 94M users
Netflix’s ad-supported plan now reaches 94 million monthly users worldwide. In the US, these users are highly engaged, averaging 41 hours of viewing per month.
The company is planning big upgrades: better targeting, new ad formats, and improved measurement tools to attract more advertisers.
🦊 STREAMERS: FOX unveils its own streaming service
FOX is finally going direct-to-consumer with FOX One, a new platform that will combine its news, sports, and entertainment in one place.
FOX was one of the last major media companies without a D2C service. Now the question is: who’s next?
📱 TRENDING: Micro-drama apps hit 300M downloads in 2024
Shared at CABSAT by RisingJoy: there was 210+ micro-drama apps on the App Store in 2024, generating over 300 million downloads and $570 million in revenue.
Top markets? USA, Indonesia, and Brazil. A clear sign that this format is going global, far beyond its origins in China. A full analysis from The Streaming Lab is coming soon.
🥇 DATA: Shahid leads the SVOD Race
Omdia latest data ranks the top platforms in MENA on December 2024: Shahid (4.4M), YouTube Premium (3.7M), Netflix (3M), and StarzPlay (2.3M). Good to see more data about the region, but always worth cross-checking sources.
By the way, Shahid is now public and reports even higher numbers: 5M SVOD subs (+25.6% YoY) and 18.6M AVOD monthly users in Q4 (+22.1% YoY). One question for you: Should YouTube Premium really be on this list?
🌱 GROWTH: iQIYI launches (again) in MENA
The Chinese streaming giant iQIYI launched officially in MENA this week in Dubai, aiming to bring premium Chinese and Asian content to Arabic-speaking audiences.
The platform first tested the region a few years ago, and also partnered with STARZ ON last summer. Now, with full localization and co-productions planned, iQIYI looks ready to go all in MENA.
🎟️ CANNES: Tom Cruise hits the Red Carpet
Cannes isn’t famous for action blockbuster movies, but this week, Tom Cruise brought Hollywood to the festival with Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.
The eighth film in the franchise releases on May 23. With a $400M budget, it’s a big bet for cinemas still recovering post-COVID, especially after the last one underperformed.
🌍 CABSAT 2025 in Numbers
CABSAT 2025 brought together 820+ brands from 120+ countries, with national pavilions from China, France, Germany, and the UK. 190 speakers took the stage across the Content Congress and SATExpo Summit. In total, more than 32,000 professionals showed up.
Beyond the numbers, there was a lot happening, with side events from tech companies, media, and streaming platforms. It’s starting to look more and more like IBC, just based in Dubai.
🎎 Blu Eye Samurai from Michael Green and Amber Noizumi (Netflix, 8 episodes): Driven by a dream of revenge against those who made her an outcast in Edo-period Japan, a young warrior cuts a bloody path toward her destiny.
🎥 The Studio from Evan Goldberg, Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck (Apple TV+, 10 episodes): Desperate for celebrity approval, the newly appointed head of a movie studio and his executive team at Continental Studios must juggle corporate demands with creative ambitions as they try to keep movies alive and relevant.
10 years ago, on June 24, 2015, Mr. Robot premiered on TV. Created by Sam Esmail, Mr. Robot stood out for its bold storytelling, cinematic direction, and unexpected plot twists. It quickly became a cult hit and won multiple awards, including a Golden Globe for Best Drama Series.
Thanks for reading, enjoy your weekend! We’ll be back Monday with our MENA insights.
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