SVOD Revenues in Middle East & North Africa to Triple

SVOD revenues in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are projected to reach $2.97 billion by 2025, according to Digital TV Research.

Digital TV Research’s Middle East and North Africa OTT TV and Video Forecasts report projects the region will be home to 29.6 million SVOD subs in 2025, more than double the 12.25 million recorded at the end of 2019. Netflix will have the lead with about 10.1 million subs, followed by StarzPlay and Disney+ with about 3 million each. Other key players include Shahid Plus with 1.3 million subs and Amazon Prime with 1 million subs, plus icflix, Apple TV+ and Wavo.

By territory, key revenue generators include Turkey ($908 million), Saudi Arabia ($563 million) and Israel ($470 million).

Digital TV Research recently reported that MENA pay-TV revenues have been on the decline “given the hangover from the beIN ban and generally falling ARPUs.” Pay-TV revenues in the region’s 13 Arabic-speaking markets will recover to $1.3 billion by 2025 from $1 billion this year. The number of pay-TV subs in these markets will reach 4.7 million from 3.6 million in 2019.