A consortium of Abu Dhabi-based companies is set to acquire a controlling stake in subscription streaming service Starzplay Arabia, providing parent company Lionsgate with nearly $50m in return.
The group, which has acquired a stake of approximately 57%, includes UAE investment company ADQ and pay-TV operator E-Vision, which is part of e& (previously known as Etisalat Group). It has valued Starzplay Arabia at $420m.
The deal, which remains subject to regulatory approvals, will reduce Lionsgate’s stake from 30% to 13%. Starz and Lionsgate will maintain commercial agreements for content licensing to the venture.
Launched in 2015, Starzplay Arabia has close to 2 million subscribers in 19 countries across the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan. It was the first Starz-branding SVoD service to launch outside the US.
Titles includes content exclusive to Starzplay Arabia such as Baghdad Central and Starz Original series such as Power, Outlander, Spartacus and The White Queen. The SVoD also has close ties with studios including MGM, 20th Century Studios, Disney, Warner Bros, Universal, Discovery and Fox International Channels.
The new deal will provide E-Vision with an opportunity to lead in content aggregation in the MENA region, having operated since 1999 and amassing a library of 15,000 hours of on-demand content across numerous languages.
Maaz Sheikh, CEO and co-founder of Starzplay Arabia, said: “The investment by E-Vision and ADQ will enable us to grow further by focusing on original content production.”
Starz president and CEO Jeffrey Hirsch said: “We’re proud of what Maaz and the team have built over the past few years, creating one of the pre-eminent SVOD platforms in the Middle East and North Africa.”
He added that it has “served as a template for growth that allowed us to rapidly scale the Starzplay brand around the world now in over 60 countries”.
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