Netflix has announced a new streaming partnership with Middle East broadcaster MBC Group that will make the U.S. streamer’s content more easily accessible to Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) viewers.
As part of the partnership, Netflix’s entire library will join MBC’s Shahid streaming platform on the broadcaster’s MBCNOW content aggregator. The deal combines Shahid’s trove of Arabic shows and films, MBC’s linear TV programming and Netflix’s originals into one streaming bundle.
Shahid currently ranks as the MENA region’s most popular streaming service. According to global analyst group Omdia, Shahid had 4.4 million active subscribers in Dec. 2024. The Saudi government, notably, owns a 60% stake in MBC. The other 40% is held by MBC Group chairman and founder Waleed bin Ibrahim Al-Ibrahim.
“This groundbreaking partnership is one for the books,” said MBC Group director of emerging media Fadel Zahreddine in a statement Monday. “To have two streaming giants – Shahid and Netflix – come together under one platform is something never seen before in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and wider MENA, and we’re very excited for what’s to come.”
“We’re thrilled to have MBC Group join forces with Netflix to bring its content to our audiences under the convenience of a single subscription,” added Mohammed Al Kuraishi, Netflix’s head of business development and partnerships in the Middle East and Africa.
This deal comes at a time when streaming is not only experiencing a boom in the MENA region, but when more and more global streaming partnerships are being forged. In June, Netflix announced a partnership with French broadcaster TF1 that will allow all of Netflix’s subscribers in France to watch TF1’s channels and TF1+ on-demand content on the streaming service in 2026.
In early July, Amazon’s Prime Video and French broadcaster France Télévisions also finalized a partnership deal that made the latter’s programming available on Prime Video to the platform’s French subscribers. Disney+ and the U.K.’s ITV also came together recently for a streaming deal that made certain Disney+ titles available to stream on ITVX and a select number of ITV titles available to stream in Britain on Disney+.
