Hey streamers 👋
Last week, JioHotstar celebrated its launch in MENA by lighting up the Burj Khalifa. Viewers can now find a dedicated JioHotstar content corner inside STARZPLAY apps and website. Quite an introduction to the region!
This week, another international streaming brand announced a regional partnership: CJ ENM and MBC Group are bringing another TVING content corner to MBC Shahid and Korean programming on MBC4 channel.
I checked MBC Shahid yesterday, and the TVING corner is already available. Looking at what viewers can actually watch showed an interesting difference between the two offers.
That is what I want to check this week: what do these international brands expect from a regional partner, and what do STARZPLAY and MBC Shahid get in return?
Both deals build on existing content relationships. Hotstar content already reached MENA through regional distribution, including Disney Star’s agreement with evision/STARZPLAY. CJ ENM and MBC Shahid also worked together before announcing their branded hub.
The next step is giving those brands a local home, and helping viewers find a reason to come back.
Read on to learn about:
What my Netflix data tells us about Indian and Korean content in MENA.
The different opportunities behind the STARZPLAY and MBC Shahid partnerships.
What other platforms can learn from their approach to discovery, subscriptions and retention.
Start with the audience, country by country
Before looking at the partnerships, I wanted to understand how successful Indian and Korean content already is in the region.
My NETFLIX in MENA dashboard gives us one way to check that. I looked at 40 weeks of data from 2026, covering 4,000 weekly TV Top 10 appearances across ten markets, to see how often South Korean and Indian titles appeared in the charts. 👇