Netflix’s entry into the market has served to raise general awareness of video on demand and streaming services in the region, to the benefit of competing platforms, according to its biggest rivals.
The popular streaming service officially launched in the Middle East and North Africa in January as part of a global expansion of the service, but with a far smaller content offering than in markets including the US and the UK.
David Irvine, chief technology officer for the Dubai-based streaming and video on demand platform icflix said that Netflix’s arrival is “good for the industry as a whole”.
Speaking on the opening day of the Cabsat broadcast and entertainment conference in Dubai, which concludes today, Mr Irvine said: “It’s still a very immature market and it’s just going to grow and grow.”
Mr Irvine said that icflix had recently noted “exponential” subscriber growth, particularly within the Maghreb region, declining to give further details.
However, rival Starz Play said its regional paid subscriber base was currently increasing by up to 500 subscribers per day, in spite of Netflix’s launch.
“[The arrival of Netflix is] the best news since my two kids were born,” said Maaz Sheikh, the president and chief executive of Dubai-based Starz Play.“The most important thing for us is that it’s forced them to shut down the VPN usage of their service out of the US and the UK, and as these consumers get shut down, they will be forced to go to the localised regional Netflix service,” he said. “That service will have a hard time competing with their service in the US and UK, which is good news for us.”
Netflix said it was committed to increasing content for Middle East-based subscribers, according to Ashi Seth, the company’s manager of enterprise platforms.
“Right now we’re going through a learning stage, rolling out a set of our originals with a different catalogue to what we have in different regions,” said Mr Seth.
“However the longer-term goal is to consolidate the catalogues … and also try to find that content that particular regions and particular niches within those regions are asking for.”
Mr Seth declined to comment on take-up of the service in the region since its official launch.
jeverington@thenational.ae
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