The growth is expected to continue, adding to the overall demand for strong development and feeding competition for projects of interest in the region.
VYND.IO, a data intelligence platform for the video entertainment industry, has announced the release of the first intelligence report on Arabic Original programming for OTT platforms in MENA. The report highlights details of the exponential growth of Arabic Original releases on OTT services, up 383% from 2019 to 2020.
The Accelerating Growth of Arabic Original Releases
In the years running up to 2019, Arabic Originals on OTT platforms were very few and far between and were predominantly released by internationally backed platforms. In 2020, however, there was a significant acceleration from 12 Arabic Originals in 2019 to 46 Arabic Originals, and this was primarily driven by regional OTT services.
The report highlights how local services such as Shahid (39% of total 2020 Arabic Original output), Jawwy (22% of total 2020 Arabic Original Output) and OSN (9% of total 2020 Arabic Original output) have led to this massive expansion of content. International services Viu (17% of total 2020 Arabic Original output) and Netflix (4% of total 2020 Arabic Original output) have likewise continued to increase their releases. In the coming years this growth is expected to continue, adding to the overall demand for strong development and feeding competition for projects of interest in the region.
Towards a more data driven future for production
As more global players enter the region in search of growth, and with more services competing for original content, budgets will inevitably rise and production resources will be stretched, resulting in an ever-increasing pressure on making the right decisions in production and content. The balance will shift towards the companies that can most effectively combine the raw power of data with creativity.
However, data to support the content industry is scattered, disconnected, siloed or simply not captured. Given these blind spots, content acquisition and marketing decisions are potentially being made inefficiently, resulting in billions of wasted expenditures and lost revenue opportunities each year.
VYND.IO has provided a first sample of how data can provide deep insights into the industry.
