Forecasted pay TV revenues in select MENA countries in 2027, by country

As projected for 2027, Turkey was expected to lead the pay-TV market in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region with a revenue of over 722 million U.S. dollars. It was followed by the United Arab Emirates at almost 280 million U.S. dollars.

MENA media trends

During the previous decade, television gained importance across all households in the MENA region. The top three most-watched TV channels in the region according to Forbes in 2021 were news channels. Recently, the growth of the internet has been influencing the popularity of TV. Many people are switching from watching traditional TV to watching content online. The decrease in TV’s popularity was the highest in Qatar, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.

The COVID-19 outbreak has had a huge effect on the industry as well. There was a 141 percent increase in the number of users of streamed video content in the region in 2020 following the pandemic.

MENA TV operators

  The value of the TV industry in the MENA region was estimated to be more than 4.3 billion euros in 2020. The TV industry in the MENA region was dominated by free-to-air (FTA) broadcasting which was the highest source of TV revenue. A smaller share of consumers pay for TV subscriptions with the highest share being in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at only 12 percent in 2018. There have been recent shifts to pay-TV and over-the-top (OTT) choices. The revenue from OTT TV and radio was estimated to exceed 1.7 billion U.S. dollars by 2022. There was also an increase in paid video-on-demand (VOD) services worldwide. In 2024, Turkey was expected to earn the highest revenue from VOD services in the region at more than half a billion dollars, followed by Saudi Arabia.