Online video in MENA to grow more than 22% annually until 2021

Monday, January 15th, 2018
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Online video revenues in MENA to grow more than 22% annually until 2021: EY

  • A large youth population, fast- improving mobile connectivity and a flood of new streaming platforms into the market will drive growth

DUBAI, UAE — According to EY’s report on video consumption trends in the region, called Videonomics, most MENA markets are projected to grow online video revenues by 22%–35% annually until 2021. As a result, digital’s share of the video revenue pie is projected to rise from 9.6% in 2017 to 17.3% by 2021.

Ahmed Reda, MENA Telecommunication, Media and Technology Leader at EY says:
“The region’s digital consumption growth is among the highest in the world. A large youth population, fast- improving mobile connectivity and a flood of new streaming platforms into the market will continue to drive this growth over the next few years.”

Subscription and transactional revenues comprise a large share of this digital segment at around 45%. Segmented packages across price points and telco tie-ups for billing have helped in this region, but the trend also points to a new generation that cuts the cord and leapfrogs directly to digital subscriptions.

Nripendra Singh, Director, Media and Entertainment, EY Africa, India and the Middle East says:
“Digital video revenues and viewership are set to grow to by at least 22% annually till 2021 in the MENA region. To ride this new wave, content creators will need to focus on multi language offerings, partnerships across the video value chain, analytics and customer centricity”.

Pay TV will continue to drive growth

MENA’s TV market has long been dominated by FTA (Free-To-Air) channels, and consequently, ad-funded business models. The region’s consumers have access to over 900 FTA channels and more than 90% of viewership comes from FTA in markets such as the UAE, KSA and Egypt. While the region has seen approximately 500 FTA channels added over the last decade, ad revenue growth has slowed. It appears the ad market is nearing saturation and recorded negative growth in 2016 and 2017.