Warner Discovery expands in Gulf amid demand for Arabic content
The U.S. media giant, which bought a stake in Dubai's OSN in March, is holding initial meetings with its new affiliate, The National reports
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Warner Bros. Discovery is planning to use its expansion in the Middle East region as a major stepping stone towards becoming a top-three global streamer, a senior executive says.
The U.S. media giant, which bought a one-third stake in Dubai streaming company OSN in March for $57 million, is holding initial team meetings this week with its new affiliate to pinpoint a successful direction for Arabic content, The National reports.
Global media companies are paying notice to the rapidly growing demand for Arabic-language content, which grew by 16 times between 2020 to 2024, according to research by Parrot Analytics and Rise Studios.
For Warner Bros., the question of how to win over Middle East audiences starts with “multi-local” content, a strategy that has proven successful in other parts of the world. “Once a story succeeds in a particular country, we try to see if it resonates in another and give it the needed funding to travel,” Jamie Cooke, Warner Bros. Middle East lead, told The National.
“We’ve tried in the past to produce something from here that works everywhere,” Cooke said. “It’s very hard. If you try to create something for the world [from the start]. It means nothing to everyone.”
Following the OSN deal, Warner Bros. moved quickly to include Discovery+ on OSN+ earlier this month, cementing the local partner’s position as the region’s quality subscription service, already home to exclusive HBO programming, including classic TV mob drama “The Sopranos.”