OSN’s Asli goes live

With an estimated 40 hours of content to be made online in season one, OSN’s Asli went live on February 6, 2018, from the custom-built studio within the OSN offices in Dubai Media City. Content creators and media representatives were taken on a tour of the  studio that reportedly took under five weeks to construct complete with live streaming and live music sections. Asli which means original in many of the region’s languages, is OSN’s latest strategic offering and will be live through the company’s existing OTT platform WAVO, and will be free for viewers.

The new curated platform for licensed content was first announced on the sidelines of the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) in December 2017, that will allow creators to retain ownership of their content.

With a quirky take, through a short film, on CEO Martin Stewart’s conservative taste in sneakers, Ismat Abidi, Producer of Asli and Legal Counsel at OSN , outlined the strategy going forward.

“Content creators will no longer need to worry about chasing algorithms, selling their work or relying on sponsorships or commissioned projects.  Asli allows content creators to focus on what they enjoy the most, telling great stories from this region, for the world.”

From on-site colour grading and editing facilities, content creators will not only be able to shoot and upload content, Abidi contended, but also access instant licencing and distribution platforms.

Asli features content created in different languages, spoken by people in the region, with subtitles provided in both Arabic and English.

Content creators will also be educated on the business side of content creation, as per Abidi, from securing IP rights to marketing their content. The Asli team will reach out to content creators in the region through roadshows. A brief video was shown on the inaugural roadshow to Egypt.

” We will soon be going to Lebanon for the next roadshow,” Abidi revealed.

While introducing the content creators who have already signed the Asli ‘handshake’ CEO Martin Stewart added: “As we strive to continue to reshape the entertainment landscape in this region, home to such amazing talent, it is with extreme pride and excitement that we now deliver Asli, an online curated publishing platform, where content creators can license and showcase their unique work to reach a vast audience.”

OSN also revealed how creators are paid, depending on their content. A per-minute fee has been established for short-form content, with plans to partner with studios that are affiliated with OSN’s international network, to further the avenues of monetisation for their creators.