• Year-round showcase of premium sports coverage covering football, cricket, boxing, basketball, golf and more
  • Exciting additions include the recently acquired Italian Football League under the slogan “The New Home of Serie A” as well as other international and regional football tournaments such as Coppa Italia, Supercoppa Italiana, and the Dutch Eredivisie.

Dubai, UAE: Sports entertainment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is set for a transformational change with STARZPLAY, the region’s leading subscription video on demand (SVOD) platform, announcing the launch of STARZPLAY Sports, an all-new service dedicated to the millions of sports lovers.

To be unveiled on Friday, August 12, STARZPLAY Sports seeks to disrupt the sporting entertainment scene by bringing together the best and most popular live sport events under one platform. Integrating the existing breadth of sports channels with an assortment of new sports events, STARZPLAY Sports will push the boundaries of sports event streaming, giving viewers an unprecedented experience.

Subscribers of STARZPLAY Sports are in for many surprises including the latest addition of the prestigious Italian League Serie A, enabling football fans across the region to watch all 380 matches live with Arabic and English commentary exclusively. The Italian League will be streamed on the newly launched channels AD Sports Premium 1 and AD Sports Premium 2 exclusively on STARZPLAY.

All year round, STARZPLAY Sports will bring a breadth of premium international and regional tournaments such as the Coppa Italia, Supercoppa Italiana, the Dutch Eredivisie.

To delight the millions of cricket, boxing, basketball, and golf fans, STARZPLAY Sports will be the home of Indian home series and the Pakistan Super League, Frank Warren boxing, EuroLeague and EuroCup basketball competitions, PGA Tour, any many more sports, leagues and tournaments.

STARZPLAY Sports will bring exciting global sporting events round the clock through live on-demand events and bespoke live channels bringing subscribers uninterrupted live coverage in all 19 countries that the platform operates in, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. All live events will become immediately available to watch on demand once the event has ended, allowing users who miss out on the live action to watch whenever and wherever they want.

Danny Bates, Chief Commercial Officer, STARZPLAY, said: “As the pioneer of SVOD in the region and since launching our first sports channel in 2021, building an exclusive portfolio of sports in the OTT space has been our strategic priority. Now, we are challenging the status quo of sports streaming in the region with STARZPLAY Sports, a platform like no other that will provide sports lovers more reasons to cheer. We are dedicated to ensuring that the best sports entertainment is readily accessible to our subscribers. For this, we leverage cutting-edge technology to bring users a seamless, high-quality experience and the best industry low latency live streaming possible.”

As part of its long-term strategy, STARZPLAY is building the sports content category into one of its core products, offering the best in sports entertainment to its 2.1 million subscribers across the region. The new STARZPLAY Sports package will complement the platform’s existing entertainment offering.

STARZPLAY’s sports and entertainment content can be enjoyed through starzplay.com and the STARZPLAY mobile apps. Subscribers can enjoy the fantastic quality on their big screens via the STARZPLAY television app available on Android TV, Apple TV, Smart TVs, PS4 or through casting video from the mobile app to TV through AirPlay or Google Chromecast.

With thousands of hours of premium content including the best western content, Arabic shows, Turkish favourites, anime, and live sports, STARZPLAY is today the number one streaming platform in the MENA region. The service is available in 19 countries across the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan for fans to enjoy quality content anytime, anywhere, and from any device.  

-Ends-

About STARZPLAY:  

Ranked consistently among the region’s Top 3 subscription video on demand service, STARZPLAY Arabia (www.starzplay.com) streams an extensive bouquet of premium content covering Hollywood movies, TV shows, documentaries, the same-time-as-the-US series – plus live sports, dedicated kids’ entertainment and Arabic content – to 19 countries across MENA and Pakistan.

STARZPLAY has thousands of premium titles including exclusive STARZPLAY Arabia original content such as Baghdad Central, STARZ Original content such as Power, Outlander, Spartacus and The White Queen as well as premium content with add-ons such as UFC Arabia, BluTV, AD Sports, Rugby and Majid TV.

STARZPLAY Arabia has secured tie ups with a host of leading, global studios including MGM, 20th Century Studios, Warner Bros, Universal, Discovery and Fox International Channels.  

Until 2022, STARZ (www.starz.com), a Lionsgate company (NYSE: LGF.A, LGF.B) was the lead investor along with media and technology investment firms including SEQ Investors and Delta Partners. In early 2021, STARZPLAY Arabia secured its first independent financing in the region of US$25 million (approx. AED 92 million) from Abu Dhabi based Ruya Partners. In March 2022, E-Vision, from e& and ADQ, an Abu Dhabi-based investment and holding company, acquired a majority equity stake of circa 57% in the company.

Reaching over to 2.1 million subscribers, STARZPLAY Arabia allows subscribers to watch its full HD and 4K content via most internet-enabled devices, smart TVs and game consoles, and is widely available on regional IPTV services. Its iOS and Android apps – installed on more than three million devices – also allow downloads for offline playback.

Social Tags: @starzplayarabia Instagram, @starzplay Facebook, @STARZPlayArabia Twitter  

Media Queries:
Srishti Soni | Sabrin Al-Aloul 
srishti.soni@bcw-global.com | sabrin.alaloul@bcw-global.com
​​​​​​​ASDA’A BCW | Arab Youth Survey