Eros Media World Enters Saudi Arabian Market, Partners With Arabia Pictures Group

variety.com:

Naman Ramachandran Indian media and entertainment company Eros Media World is entering the Saudi Arabian market via a partnership with Riyadh-headquartered Arabia Pictures Group (APG).APG, a content production outfit, focuses mainly on the MENA region.

Eros and APG will explore strategic and business opportunities in the film production, technology, and Web3 spaces, exclusively catering to the Indian entertainment industry.

The two companies are already in the advanced stages of testing movie archive digitization and virtual location scouting technologies.The partnership aims to tap into Vision 2030, the Saudi Arabian government’s strategic framework to move away from Saudi Arabia’s dependence on oil to diversify its economy and develop public service sectors such as health, education, infrastructure, recreation, media and tourism, which is driven by the country’s General Entertainment Authority.

Bollywood films have been playing well in Saudi ever since Akshay Kumar’s “Gold” became the first Bollywood title released in Saudi Arabia in 2018, shortly after its religion-related ban on cinemas was lifted in December of 2017.As a part of Vision 2030, the Saudi Arabian government plans to transform its film industry into a major economic contributor by investing approximately $6.9 billion in the sector.