What's an ideal SVOD monthly fee?
The Streaming Lab - MENA #002
Hey 👋 - Yann here.
This is the 2nd issue of The Streaming Lab - MENA.
Every Saturday, I send out 1 tip to better understand the OTT market in Middle East & North Africa.
Enjoy the show.
My tip today: to get a better idea of the SVOD pricing strategies, look at the players next to each other.
I designed the “Mena Media Map: SVOD Pricing Strategies”, to get a clear view of the subscription fees from 20 local players and 4 global giants.
And I compared them through 4 different angles ↓
Platform & territory-based parameters
Global giants & MENA local players
Niche & generalist content
Unique-plan & multi-packages
The Mena Media Map: SVOD Pricing Strategies includes monthly subscription fees from 24 SVOD services in United Arab Emirates. The prices are in AED and the platforms are ranked according to their entry-level plans.
Download the pdf version here.
Platform & territory-based parameters
The ideal SVOD monthly fee is the price users are willing to pay to watch the content they like. And this perceived value is driven by several parameters:
Platform-based parameters:
Library size, content quality and uniqueness
Video quality, number of devices and concurrent stream limits
Commitment: daily, weekly, monthly or yearly subscription
Territory-based parameters
Country GDP levels
Traditional content access: Pay-TV & FTA
Competition from OTT players
Piracy rates
Most importantly, the brand positioning will also define the price, or the other way around.
Global giants & MENA platforms
Surprisingly, the global giants are not the most expensive services in the region.
Prime Video (AED 16) and Apple TV+ (AED 19.99) regularly release high quality originals. However, Amazon owns one of the largest OTT library size whereas Apple TV+ owns hundreds of titles only.
Netflix offers around 5,000 titles in most of MENA countries but the membership fees can vary significantly: $6.68 in Morocco and Egypt, 7.99$ (AED 29) in UAE or $8.53 in Saudi Arabia.
Disney+ (AED 29.99) subscribers will access stories from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic and Star starting on June 8th in MENA: 1,200 films, 1,000 series and a slate of 100 originals.
Local homegrown platforms have a much larger monthly price range: from AED 10.98 for the Jordanian Roya Kids to AED 73.41 for the Qatari BeIN Connect.
This variety can be explained by very diverse content strategies: niche services with kids, fighting content or Sports and generalist platforms mixing Hollywood, Arabic and international content.
Niche & generalist content
Most of the niche services appear on the left side of the graph with a low subscription fee:
Kids-focused services: Roya Kids (AED 10.98), Spacetoon Go (AED 10.98), Majid Universe (AED 16.99) and PG kids (AED 18.33).
Wide Khaliji (AED 10.98) and UFC Arabia (AED 18.99), respectively focused on GCC & Arabic TV Series and UFC & MMA content.
Live and On Demand Sports seem to be the most expensive niche among local players: Shahid Sports (AED 59.99), TOD Sports (AED 55.09), StarzPlay Rugby (AED 54.99) and BeIN Connect (AED 73.41).
Entertainment packages on generalist services have variable membership fees, with a ratio from one to two: Shahid VIP (AED 29.99), OSN+ (AED 35), Jawwy TV (AED 39.99), StarzPlay (AED 39.99) and Switch TV (On Demand Combo - AED 59.99).
Unique-plan & multi-packages
More than 60% of SVOD services in Middle East and North Africa offer a unique subscription plan.
I listed below the players with multi-packages and detailed the main parameters:
Spacetoon Go - Plus (AED 10.98) and Pro (AED 18.33) packages offer the same content and video quality (HD), but the high-end package is without ads.
PG Kids - Silver (AED 18.33), Gold (AED 25.67) and Platinum (AED 29.34) packages include the same content offering, the only variation is the number of authorized devices (1, 2 or 4). The Diamond plan is similar than Platinum but for one year.
Watch It - The only difference between the 3 packages (AED 18.99, 29.99 and 42.99) is the number of devices available per user (1, 2 or 3).
Netflix - Basic (AED 29), Standard (AED 39) and Premium (AED 56) plans depend on video quality (HD or ultra HD), the concurrent streams (1, 2 or 4) and the number of mobile devices you can have downloads on (1,2 or 4).
Shahid - The different packages are based on the content available: Entertainment (VIP - AED 29.99), Sports (AED 59.99) and Ultimate (AED 69.99) but also on the video quality (SD or HD for Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Pro League). All packages include an unlimited number of devices, and authorise 3 concurrent streams.
TOD - Entertainment (AED 36.73) and Sports (AED 55.09) packages have exclusive content offering. The number of concurrent streams is also different: 2 for Entertainment & 1 for Sports. The All-in package includes all content and 2 concurrent streams. All 3 packages authorise 5 devices max.
Ten Time - Show (AED 36.69) and Premium (AED 73.41) subscribers can access respectively 1 and 2 devices with 1 and 2 concurrent users.
StarzPlay - All packages authorise 5 devices and 2 concurrent streams. The difference comes from the content available: StarzPlay (AED39.99 including Discovery+, AD sports and Gulf TV), Majid TV (AED 9.99), blutv (AED 17.99), UFC arabia (AED 18.99), Powerplay (AED 24.99) and Rugby (AED 54.99).
Switch TV - Users can register up to 5 devices with 1 concurrent stream for the same movie and 2 for the same TV Show. The service offers an incredibly variety of On Demand and Live content with weekly and monthly memberships:
Live: All-in-1 Live TV Combo (AED 49.99/month), Cricket TV (AED 7.99), Asiana TV (AED 29.99), Filipino TV (AED 29.99), Sports TV (AED 24.99), AD Sports AFC (AED 14.99), AD Fight AED 29.99), OSN (AED 34.99), Entertainment TV (AED 24.99), Arabia TV (AED 24.99), Lifestyle TV (AED 24.99), News TV (AED 24.99), Tamil TV (AED 24.99), Kids TV (AED 24.99) and ICC T20 World Cup (AED 99.99).
On Demand: All-in-1 On Demand Combo (AED 59.99/month), TFC On Demand (AED 10.99), Western Movies (AED 24.99), StarzPlay (AED 39.99), Arabia Movies (AED 24.99), Asiana Movies (AED 24.99), Lifestyle On Demand (AED 24.99), Kids Movies (AED 24.99) and Sports (AED 24.99).
That’s all for today, 1 tip to better understand the OTT market in Middle East & North Africa.
See you online next week. Until then, enjoy The Real Housewives of Dubai on OSN+.
- Yann
Whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you with:
If you want to learn more about OTT in MENA, I’d recommend starting with my market report:
→ The local OTT ecosystem in MENA: Learn everything about the local streaming services in the region. Get full access here.
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