FAST in MENA - June 2023
Hey streamers 👋
Welcome to the 56th edition of The Streaming Lab. Thanks for reading me.
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This week’s program
Welcome to the 6th FAST in MENA update of the year. And it comes with new platforms and channels!
What’s new in MENA?
The FAST channels in MENA - June 2023
What’s next?
What’s new in MENA?
Rotana launched a new hybrid streaming service: El Shasha.
El Shasha is fully dedicated to Rotana channels: Cinema KSA, Cinema Masr, Classical, Comedy, Drama, Khaleejiya, LBC, Music, Aflam+, Cinema France, Clip, HD+, Kids, Risala and M+. 4 new digital channels are also available.
The platform comes with many features: Catch Up, Personal PVR, reminders, Location aware EPG, Detailed Guide and Share with friends.
As you can see below, the differences between the Free and premium offer are the number of channels available, the number of hours for Catch Up and PVR, the number of concurrent streams authorized and the video quality.
rotana.net is also evolving. The service is now available in English and finally looks like a “modern” Streaming service. The platform added a section dedicated to linear content called Web TV.
The Fast Channels in MENA - June 2023
Here’s the updated number of FAST channels available on MENA local services in June 2023. As a reminder, I consider a FAST channel any streaming linear programming available for free to consumers, with commercials.
My main observations:
Shahid
Shahid removed 3 channels from its FAST portfolio (Al Anisa Farah, Nadine Njeim and Mawaheb) and added 4 new ones: Omar, Maraya, Stiletto and Muhammad Abdo. They also revised the logos of all the FAST channels so that they can better blend with the others in the EPG.
Roya TV
As expected, Roya TV removed its pop-up channel dedicated to the Jordanian Crown Prince's Wedding.
El Shasha
As mentioned above, El Shasha is the new streaming player in MENA, with already 13 channels available for free. It looks like 4 channels were created specifically for the new service: Ismail Yasssine, Soad Hosny, Musical Movies and Farid Shawqi.
Rotana
Rotana upgraded its platform, and at the same time limited the number of channels available for free. If users want to watch the following premium channels, they will have to go to the new service El Shasha: Rotana Aflam+, Rotana Cinema France, Rotana+ HD, Rotana Cinema + US, Rotana Music Videos, Rotana Risala, Rotana M+
What’s interesting is that Rotana Comedy and Rotana Kids are free on rotana.net but paid on El Shasha. And Rotana Risala is not available on Rotana.net but part of the free package on El Shasha.
The variety of Ads available on rotana.net is still very limited. We should expect more campaigns on this upgraded platform soon.
Do you need more details about the FAST channels available in MENA? What happened in the past 6 months? What are the Single-IP channels? What are the most represented genres? I track everything. Just ask me!
What’s Next?
I’m still waiting for the launch of Tarfeeh TV, the FAST platform coming from the joint venture between OTTera and Sawa Media.
I would have expected to see more FAST channels from third party providers on Shahid, Weeyak and the other local Arabic services with FAST initiatives. I assume their main challenge is the channels selection. Would a FAST channel from the US or Europe be successful in MENA? Or do we need more FAST channels coming from local providers.
Another SVOD service from the MENA region just switched to an AVOD & SVOD hybrid model : Hilal Play. Who’s next?
That’s all for today, the state of FAST in MENA in June 2023.
See you online next week. Until then, get ready for Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, to be released in UAE theaters on July 13, 2023.
Where’s the pic with you and Tom? 😁