AMC Networks Launching Five MENA Channels With Qatar’s beIN Pay TV Platform
AMC Networks International is launching five channels with Qatar’s ambitious pay TV platform beIN across the Middle East and North Africa. AMC will become exclusively available to beIN subscribers in the region in HD. Four other, newly localized premium channels will also launch on the platform including CBS Reality, Extreme Sports Channel, Outdoor Channel and pre-school channel JimJam.
AMC Studios’ upcoming anthology drama series The Terror, an adaption of the bestselling novel by Dan Simmons, will also premiere exclusively on AMC Global in territories worldwide next year, including the Middle East and North Africa.
“beIN’s foray into entertainment content has been extremely successful as the platform has been able to attract a number of high quality global and premium content partners during the course of the last few months,” said Yousef Al-Obaidly, beIN’s deputy chief exec. “Partnering with AMCNI is yet another important milestone for beIN. This new offering from AMCNI brings unique, high quality and diverse content for beIN subscribers. This partnership helps us further consolidate beIN’s position as the leading pay TV network in MENA.”
The 10-episode drama The Terror is produced by Scott Free, Emjag Productions and Entertainment 360 in association with AMC Studios. The series will premiere globally within minutes of broadcast on AMC U.S. The Terror is distributed internationally by AMC Studios. Written by David Kajganich (True Story), who will also serve as co- showrunner with Soo Hugh (The Killing), the series is set in 1847, when a Royal Naval expedition crew searching for the Northwest Passage is attacked by a mysterious predator that stalks the ships and their crew in a suspenseful and desperate game of survival.
Exec producers are Scott Free’s Ridley Scott and David W. Zucker, Emjag’s Alexandra Milchan and Scott Lambert and Entertainment 360’s Guymon Casady.
beIN Media has grand ambition for the Middle East and beyond. Earlier this year, it completed its acquisition of Miramax. beIN operates across the Middle East and North Africa, France, the U.S., Canada, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Philippines and Australia. Last year, it closed deals with Major League Soccer (MLS) to broadcast its games across Southeast Asia and Australia, as well as even more significantly, completing its long-in-the-works acquisition for Turkey’s biggest pay TV network Digiturk, for a figure believed to be in excess of $1 billion. That purchase was as much political as it was commercial given Turkey’s geographical and cultural proximity to the Arab world. Dubbed Turkish dramas have dominated Arab TV grids for close to a decade and offering content across both Turkish and MENA territories will potentially give beIN execs a scope and scale rarely seen in the region before.
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