OSN acquires Pehla

Pay-TV network OSN has acquired Pehla Media & Entertainment from Arab Digital Distribution for an undisclosed sum of money. The Asian entertainment platform will now be called OSN Pehla and is available as of August 25 on the OSN platform. BroadcastPro ME was the first to break this news on Twitter last week. The acquisition of Pehla includes 69 more staff to OSN, bringing its total staff to 1500 employees.

David Butorac, Chief Executive Officer of OSN, said: “We are marking an exciting new chapter in OSN’s history with the integration of Pehla into our network. This acquisition builds on OSN’s growth strategy to explore opportunities for market consolidation bringing greater economies of scale and operational efficiencies to offer great value entertainment for subscribers. Appealing to millions of South Asian expatriates, OSN Pehla now gives us the opportunity to reach out to one of the largest demographics in MENA, serving as the ultimate entertainment destination for all segments of the region’s population.

“OSN has already established its credentials in premium Arabic, Western and Filipino entertainment, providing unrivalled content through technologically advanced platforms and unmatched On-demand and on-the-go television experiences. OSN Pehla customers will now be able to enjoy the same value added services and benefit from OSN’s award-winning customer services, our values and international industry standards.”

With Pehla, OSN will add almost 40 South Asian TV channels in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Tamil and Malayalam languages to its portfolio.

Pehla will continue to be distributed through Etisalat and Du. The subscription packages for Pehla also remain the same but the subscription will be made simpler in due course. While new Pehla subscribers will receive OSN boxes, the old subscribers’ boxes will be swapped with new ones in time although there is no deadline to achieve this.