Hey streamers 👋
This week, I’m looking at how broadcasters in MENA are getting more from their stories and reaching people beyond their own streaming apps.
Eight stories, a few things worth questioning, and five minutes of your time.
Enjoy the read!
🎮 GAMING: MBC’s 1001 Threads of Mizan caught my attention this week. The game was revealed in August, but a new interview explains the bigger ambition: create characters and a world that could eventually reach film and TV. More in The Lab’s Pick.
▶️ YOUTUBE: Here’s an existing offer worth looking at: iQIYI promotes paid YouTube memberships alongside its own streaming app. Viewers can discover content, keep watching and pay within YouTube. How much of a streaming business could happen there? More in my Analysis section.
📢 ADVERTISING: Netflix now expects around $2.7 billion in advertising revenue in 2026, down from roughly $3 billion. It points to delays in rolling out some advertising capabilities. Even with Netflix’s audience, the tools behind the ads matter. More in my Analysis section.
📊 BUSINESS: Dataxis’s look at Viu puts its H1 2026 results into perspective: paid subscribers grew 11% to 15.3 million, while subscription revenue rose 5%. Dataxis estimates revenue per subscriber fell 3.9%. A useful reminder when assessing bundles: count what each partnership earns, as well as how many subscribers it brings.
⚽ SPORTS: Smashi Sports promoted more than 60 live matches over the weekend, included in a $5 monthly subscription, with 4,000 matches planned for 2026/27, according to Augustus Media founder Richard Fitzgerald. There’s an interesting proposition here: bring enough local competitions together to give their fans a regular reason to subscribe.
🔎 DISCOVERY: JustWatch TV launched on 20 October, offering free viewing with ads, rentals and a paid option across markets including the US, UK, France and Germany. The service that helps people decide where to watch now gives them somewhere to stay. Being there when viewers make that choice could be a valuable starting point.
📺 DISTRIBUTION: TV5MONDE is now included in Prime Video for Prime members in France and Germany, at no extra charge. Announced on 19 October, the deal makes French-language programming easier to find inside an app viewers already use. Having your own platform doesn’t mean every viewer has to come through it.
🤝 CONTENT: Netflix and hoichoi’s 22 October agreement will bring all new hoichoi series over the next two years to Netflix in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, alongside their Bengali debut on hoichoi. The deal also covers catalogue titles and future adaptations. Hoichoi can serve its core audience while giving the same stories a much wider commercial life.
MBC starts with the game
What happened?
MBC’s leadership used an interview with The Hollywood Reporter on 22 October to explain the thinking behind 1001 Threads of Mizan. Gaming is a way to create original stories that the wider group could build on.
Key details:
Revealed at Gamescom on 25 August, the adventure draws on One Thousand and One Nights and Arabian folklore.
Up to three players can explore and fight together, including on flying carpets.
Historians and academics are part of the development team.
Trading cards from Upper Deck and a Titan Publishing storybook accompanied the reveal.
Film and TV are ambitions, with no adaptations confirmed.
Why it matters?
🎯 What I like is the starting point. MBC is building a world people can spend time in, explore and share with friends. If they care about its characters, that could give future books, series or films an audience before they launch. But the game has to earn that interest first. A franchise plan is useful; people wanting to return to the story is what makes it valuable.
iQIYI lets the subscription happen on YouTube
👉 On its official YouTube channel, iQIYI promotes its app and its “SuperKiwi” membership offer. Its Skip a Beat playlist, for example, invites viewers to join for full episodes. This is an established approach, and a useful one to revisit.
📍 The appeal is straightforward: someone already watching your content can pay without moving to another app. There’s a trade-off, of course. Under YouTube’s standard terms, channels receive 70% of membership revenue after applicable taxes and fees. The offer also operates within YouTube’s rules. We don’t have iQIYI’s membership revenue or conversion figures to judge its performance.
💡 I’d judge this by the extra paying viewers it brings. Some people may happily pay on YouTube but never download another streaming app. Others might move from a direct subscription. Understanding that difference is essential. The opportunity is to give viewers another convenient way to pay, and check whether the total business grows as a result.
Netflix’s advertising ambitions depend on the less glamorous work
👉 Netflix’s 20 October results lowered its annual advertising forecast by around $300 million. The company attributed the change to a slower rollout of some ad product capabilities. Meanwhile, subscription revenue growth was ahead of its expectations.
📍 Netflix is expanding access through automated advertising marketplaces and adding measurement tools for reach, frequency and attribution. It also plans to bring its ad tier to 15 more countries in 2027. Those details matter because advertisers need to buy, manage and assess campaigns within their everyday workflows.
💡 We spend plenty of time discussing premium content and audience attention. This is a reminder to look at what happens after the sales pitch. Can an advertiser buy easily? Control how often people see an ad? Understand what the campaign delivered? Netflix’s explanation points to the work required to turn an attractive audience into a repeat advertising customer.
I’ll be moderating “The Streaming Dilemma: Growth, Profitability and Survival” at the ASBU BroadcastPro ME Summit on 5 November, at The Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi Beach Resort & Marina.
I’ll be joined by speakers from OSN+ & Anghami, Augustus Media (Smashi), Viu and STARZPLAY to discuss what it takes to grow a streaming business, keep viewers and make the numbers work.
Come join us! Register here.
🌊 Below - Netflix. Something is lurking off the coast of a small Newfoundland town. Josh Hartnett plays a fisherman trying to protect his family as a mysterious sea creature threatens the community. Six episodes, now streaming.
🦈 Jaws (1975). Staying with trouble at sea, Steven Spielberg’s classic follows a police chief, a marine biologist and a shark hunter trying to protect the town of Amity. Fifty-one years later, it’s still a good reason to stay on the beach.
🧪 Fresh from The Lab:
Thanks for reading, and have a great week!
🔝 Have you tried NETFLIX in MENA? The dashboard is open to everyone for now. Explore the TV rankings and let me know what you find.
