Niches are the new riches - Part I
Niches are the new riches - Part I
The Streaming Lab - MENA #004
Hey 👋 - Yann here.
This is the 4th issue of The Streaming Lab - MENA.
Each Saturday, I send out one tip to better understand the OTT market in Middle East & North Africa.
Enjoy the show.
This week, I’m looking at Niche OTT services: platforms targeting smaller audiences with a specialised content strategy.
This edition will have two parts:
PART I - This week
Why Niche streamers are the new experts?
Who are the Best-in-class specialty services around the world?
PART II - Next week
The Middle East ultra-specialized OTT market
Why are Kids still at the top of the niches?
Niche & super-aggregators: a winning recipe?
Why Niche streamers are the new expert?
The main differences between Generalist services and Niche OTT players is the Target Audience.
Entertainment OTT services target a wider audience: Kids, Teens, Young Adults, Families, Adults, 16-33 y.o Women, 35-55 y.o Men, etc.
This is why they have to offer content from many genres: Action, Adventure, Biography, Children, Comedy, Crime, Documentary, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Lifestyle, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, Sports, Thriller, War, etc.
Here are some generalist SVOD services available in Middle East: StarzPlay, Shahid, OSN+, SwitchTV, Netflix, Prime Video and more recently Disney+.
Niche OTT players also offer many types of content - Films, TV Shows, Short Forms or Documentaries - but they are focused on a specific genre: Kids-only, Sports-only, Horror-only, etc.
And Genre is not the only parameter. Some niche players have content coming from a single country, or a unique TV Network. They can also offer a specific Language, or target a very unique Ethnic group.
Some niche players available in Middle east: Wide Khaliji, UFC Arabia, Spacetoon Go, Menassati, Roya Kids, Majid Universe, Shasha Movies or PG Kids.
Who are the Best-in-class specialty services around the world?
Here are the top 10 Niche streamers in the US in 2021:
Cinemax (TV Network - Cinemax)
AMC+ (TV Network - AMC)
BET+ (Ethnic group - Black culture)
Curiosity Stream (Type - Documentaries)
BritBox (Content origin - British TV series & Films)
Acorn TV (Genre - Mystery & Crime)
Epix (TV Network - Epix)
PBS Masterpiece (Content origin - UK)
Shudder (Genre - Horror)
Sundance Now (Network - Sundance TV)
As you can see, those SVOD services are focused on very different parameters: TV Network, Ethnic group, Type of content, Origin of content and Genre.
They all have nice and attractive concepts, but also an impressive subscription growth.
David Bloom analysed their growth from 2019 to 2021 and compared it with the big streamers: Apple TV+, Peacock, Discovery+, Showtime, Starz, Paramount+, HBO Max, Disney+, Hulu and Netflix.
Overall, the niche services have grown at are an annual rate of 74% over the past two years, more than double the 30% growth rate of the big streamers.
And there are plenty of other successful examples:
Tënk (Documentaries)
Kanopy (Documentaries)
Bref (Short Films)
LaCinetek (Indie Films)
Mubi (Indie Films)
Hayu (Reality TV)
Gulli Max (Kids)
TFou Max (Kids)
DAZN (Sports)
Fubo TV (Sports)
KweliLife (Black audience)
Equidia (Horse Racing)
Crunchyroll (Anime)
RetroCrush (Anime)
Kocowa (Korean TV)
Laugh Out Loud (Comedy)
PokerGo (Games)
Pure Flix (Christmas)
Hi-Yah (Martial Arts)
WWE Networks (Wrestling)
NextUp (Stand Up Comedy)
Docsville (Documentaries)
Qello (Concerts)
Shadowz is called the “screaming platform”, as it mainly offers Horror cinema, Thriller and Fantasy, with a catalog of more than 500 films.
Cinessance is a French Film streaming service with the goal of helping this cinema-loving nation get its movies in front of a global audience that has become harder to reach over the past decade.
Vialma is a meaningful and enriching Classical & Jazz music service that brings together a community of music enthusiasts: musicians, experts, amateurs or beginners.
Niche OTT services are maybe not only about specific Target Audience. They are about “communities”. They don’t separate people because of who they are or where they come from, but they just gather people with the same interests.
That’s all for today, 1 tip to better know the niche streamers around the world. Next week in Part II:
The Middle East ultra-specialized OTT market
Why Kids remains at the top of the Niches?
Niche & super-aggregators: a winning recipe?
See you online next week. Until then, enjoy All The Way Up on Shahid 🎤
- Yann
Whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you with:
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→ The local OTT ecosystem in MENA: Learn everything about the local streaming services in the region. Get full access here.
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