The report predicts that OSN will overtake both Shahid VIP and StarzPlay, growing from 945,000 in 2021 to 2.56m by 2026.
SVOD subscriptions in 13 Arabic countries is set to rise from 8.61m this year to 15m by 2026, according to the Middle East and North Africa SVOD Forecasts report from analyst firm Digital TV Research.
Netflix will continue to be the largest service in Arabic countries, growing from 3.446m in 2021 to 5.413m. The report predicts that OSN will overtake both Shahid VIP and StarzPlay, growing from 945,000 in 2021 to 2.56m. OSN’s numbers will ride on content supply deal with Disney+ in the Arabic countries. However, Disney+ has announced plans to come into the region by 2022 and it is not known whether OSN and Disney will continue their partnership once their existing exclusive contract comes to an end this December.
StarzPlay is set to see subscribers numbers transition from 1.723m to 2.21m while Amazon will come from a relatively low standing in 2021 to a total of 1.892m by 2026, overtaking Shahid VIP which is set to have 1.405m.
Commenting on the findings of the report, Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “Although overall subscriber numbers will climb impressively, there are just too many Arabic platforms. We do not believe that the market can sustain this many Arabic platforms as few of them offer much original or exclusive content”.
