ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses digital cultural industries in the Middle East and the challenges global and local players face in an emerging market with uneven digital transformation. Drawing on cultural histories, media discourses, and industry artifacts, it provides insights into the peculiar ways the region’s burgeoning streaming sector is unfolding. The chapter offers a critical analysis of both the opportunities and challenges the region is facing as it embraces the platform era, paying particular attention to the intersecting issues of free speech and cultural embeddedness, piracy and copyright, and monetisation and scaling up. The chapter discusses three representative cases of digital adaptation in the Middle East: OSN+, which maintains its pay-TV legacy and exclusive copyrights; Netflix, which faces challenges in embedding local tastes and adapting to national legal frameworks; and Anghami, which led a digital transformation in the music industry with innovative monetisation plans and listing on Nasdaq. The chapter concludes with reflections on the state of the streaming sector, which includes international players with vested regional interests, Middle Eastern traditional businesses that are digitally transforming, and globally oriented start-ups.
