UAE-founded STARZPLAY establishes regional headquarters in Abu Dhabi as part of ADIO

10x Industry

Mita Srinivasan
10x Industry
Published:

UAE-founded STARZPLAY establishes regional headquarters in Abu Dhabi as part of ADIO

The partnership is part of ADIO’s AED 2 billion Innovation Programme and enables STARZPLAY to partner with local production houses and animation studios to produce original content, especially relevant for the region’s 200 million Arab youth

The Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) is partnering with video on demand service, STARZPLAY, to establish the company’s headquarters in Abu Dhabi. The partnership is part of ADIO’s AED 2 billion Innovation Programme. Establishing its headquarters in Abu Dhabi with ADIO’s support will enable STARZPLAY to further strengthen the production of regionally relevant original content for its audiences.

As part of the Innovation Programme partnership, ADIO has awarded STARZPLAY competitive financial incentives, including rebates on high-skilled payroll, technology-related capital expenditure and other operating expenditure, as well as non-financial incentives, such as assistance with company establishment and engagement with Abu Dhabi ecosystem partners.

STARZPLAY will ramp up partnerships with the city’s vibrant media and creative ecosystem to offer exclusive, in-demand entertainment to its subscribers. Building on existing cooperation with entities such as Abu Dhabi Media, twofour54 and Image Nation Abu Dhabi, STARZPLAY will partner with local production houses and animation studios to produce compelling original content, especially relevant for the region’s largest demographic, the 200 million Arab youth.

As part of the strategic partnership with ADIO, STARZPLAY will build a cutting-edge, next-generation private cloud in Abu Dhabi to meet the growing consumer demand in the region. STARZPLAY will also offer its private cloud to other media companies as a fully managed and turnkey over-the-top (OTT) solution. In addition, STARZPLAY will build its technology team, comprising of AI engineers and data scientists, to support the Abu Dhabi operations.

Maaz Sheikh, CEO and Co-Founder of STARZPLAY, said: “With our new headquarters in Abu Dhabi, we are excited about producing more original content through enhanced media partnerships. Further, building the new cloud facility will bring us closer to our fans to serve them with a richer and more personalised experience. These are pivotal steps in our evolution as a regional tech and media champion and we are grateful to ADIO for supporting our strategic growth vision.”

UAE-founded STARZPLAY provides premium content to its over 1.8 million subscribers in 20 countries, including blockbuster movies, exclusive TV shows, kids content and Arabic series. Since its inception in 2015, STARZPLAY has accelerated its growth with a record year in 2020 in terms of users, revenues and content consumption.