STARZPLAY records fivefold growth in monthly subscriber base driven by its exciting sports content

DUBAI, UAE, Feb. 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- STARZPLAY, MENA region's fastest growing SVOD service, has reported a five-fold increase in its number of monthly subscribers, driven by the addition of new sports content.

Average revenue per user has increased by 30% as they subscribe to more sports packages, particularly Premier Sports League (live rugby) and ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021. The sporting leagues created an influx of organic demand leading to a 41% reduction in the cost of acquiring subscriptions.

STARZPLAY reported a robust 479% increase in overall subscriptions from the same time last year and a 161% increase from the highest growth achieved during the lockdown peak in 2020.

Maaz Sheikh, CEO, STARZPLAY, said: "Live sports have the power to bring people together. We saw an untapped opportunity to invest in live sports, which tremendously benefitted our business and helped transform the OTT landscape. For the first time ever in the region a streaming platform hosted the T20 World Cup which has been a huge success with STARZPLAY breaking records of the last six years for the number of single-day signups, revenue and concurrent users."

STARZPLAY won the exclusive rights to live stream the T20 World Cup and data shows significant gains in terms of daily sign-ups, consumption and play time in minutes. Daily consumption increased by 145% during ICC T20 semifinal from current daily average and 17% from the lockdown peak in April 2020. Concurrent plays were at an all-time high of a 380% over increase from an average weekend.

STARZPLAY is named 'Super Streaming App' highlighting its credentials for popular sports and factual entertainment. Winning exclusive rights for competitions like AFC Asian Cup and FIFA World Cup 2022 qualifiers, led to an increase in STARZPLAY's app downloads resulting in first position in the UAE entertainment chart and overall chart for all app categories within Apple store.  

"When we launched our add-on packages, a main consideration was price point. We wanted to make content easily available to our subscribers and at affordable prices. However, despite understanding the purchasing power of our customers and customising our services, an increasing number of viewers turned to illegitimate services. As the leading player in the industry, we feel it's imperative to highlight the concerns surrounding piracy to mitigate the overall impact on the industry's revenue," concluded Maaz.

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