Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentDubai-based MBC Group CEO Sam Barnett is navigating what he calls the “difficult transition” of going from being the MENA region’s top satellite free-to-air player to also being its top premium streamer.At the start of the holy month of Ramadan, which is marathon TV time in the region after iftar (breaking fast), Barnett spoke to Variety about how the Saudi-owned broadcaster is managing this feat.
Edited excerpts.MBC is now operating in both the linear TV and the streaming space. How’s the streaming side going?We are celebrating this month because we just got data in that [MBC’s streaming service] Shahid VIP has become the market leader in streaming in MENA.
We’ve pulled ahead of Netflix and the others. If I compare ourselves to the competition, in terms of subs, we hit the two million figure last year.
We got there towards Ramadan, and then it dipped. Then we got back there. We are now at 2,250,000 and we are expecting to be towards three million by the end of Ramadan.
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