NINETNINE Launches Free-to-Air Linear Premium Arabic Channels On Sling TV’s OTT Service
This is NINETNINE’s first step into the US content distribution market.
NINETNINE, a provider of content distribution services to cable and OTT platforms, has announced that it is launching ten premium linear North African channels in the US on Dish Network’s OTT service, Sling TV.
The channels will be available free to households across the US, as part of an AVOD business model including Nessma TV, Samira TV, Lina TV, and others.
NINETNINE has worked with the programmers to acquire the rights for all the live TV content and to then aggregate and distribute it to Sling TV. Samir Zehani and Adel Hamla, Co-Founders, NINETNINE explain, “It’s our philosophy to provide households in diasporas in Europe and now in the US with the highest quality content. We know exactly what North Africans living abroad want to watch. We’ve already generated pay-TV revenues for some of these TV channels in France via our leading pay-tv service ‘’Le Bouquet Maghreb’’. The focus now is conquering new territories. Sling TV was absolutely the best fit for our requirements and we are excited for the launch.”
Tarak Ben Ammar, International Film Producer and investor in Nessma TV, adds, “Our partnership with NINETNINE has been paramount in our international expansion. Their expertise in taking our content to new audiences is valuable and now we are glad to explore the opportunities of AVOD with one of the best platforms in the US. We are proud and excited to start Nessma’s live feed on Sling TV’’
Liz Riemersma, VP International, Sling TV says, “Our mission at DISH and Sling International is to connect our customers to the content they love from home. We already cater to different communities across the Arab diaspora, and are excited to add services that will appeal to expats and immigrants from the Maghreb.”
NINETNINE and Dish Network took the decision to launch the channels free-to-air based on the successful uptake of AVOD services across the US over the past year. A recent Global AVOD Forecasts 2021 report states that the US has both the most developed OTT sector in the world and the most developed advertising market. It also says, “US AVOD revenues will triple between 2020 and 2026 to $31 billion. Rather than lose market share as other countries catch up, the US will grow its share of the global total from 37% in 2020 to 47% by 2026.”
You might also like...
Why AI Won’t Roll Out In Broadcasting As Quickly As You’d Think
We’ve all witnessed its phenomenal growth recently. The question is: how do we manage the process of adopting and adjusting to AI in the broadcasting industry? This article is more about our approach than specific examples of AI integration;…
Designing IP Broadcast Systems: Integrating Cloud Infrastructure
Connecting on-prem broadcast infrastructures to the public cloud leads to a hybrid system which requires reliable secure high value media exchange and delivery.
Video Quality: Part 1 - Video Quality Faces New Challenges In Generative AI Era
In this first in a new series about Video Quality, we look at how the continuing proliferation of User Generated Content has brought new challenges for video quality assurance, with AI in turn helping address some of them. But new…
Minimizing OTT Churn Rates Through Viewer Engagement
A D2C streaming service requires an understanding of satisfaction with the service – the quality of it, the ease of use, the style of use – which requires the right technology and a focused information-gathering approach.
Designing IP Broadcast Systems: Where Broadcast Meets IT
Broadcast and IT engineers have historically approached their professions from two different places, but as technology is more reliable, they are moving closer.