Netflix in crosshairs as Middle East streaming competition mounts

Al-Monitor Readers

Samuel Wendel

Senior Market Research Analyst, Al-Monitor

Aug. 14, 2024

If you hadn’t heard, the streaming wars are over and Netflix won — this proclamation has circulated recently after the streaming giant outshined rivals like Disney, Warner and Paramount in 2023. That may be the case in the United States, but the Middle East’s streaming wars are far from over. On Aug. 8, regional broadcasting giant MBC announced that its Arabic-focused streaming platform Shahid VIP had 4.6 million paid customers as of H1 2024, up 36% year-on-year. As of 2023, Netflix reportedly had 3.8 million subscribers in the Arab world, where it was comfortably the market leader until recently. Now Netflix could be in danger of falling further behind as MBC and other local rivals make moves to boost growth in 2024.