Shahid selects ThinkAnalytics to drive growth of streaming service

ThinkAnalytics, the market leading personalised recommendations and hyper-targeted advertising platform, and Shahid, the streaming service of MBC GROUP, the largest and leading media company in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region today announced that Shahid is deploying the Think360 personalised content discovery and viewer engagement platform for its streaming platform. Shahid will go live with Think360 in the summer of 2022, with support for Arabic, English, and French languages. It will support Shahid’s customer acquisition and content monetisation goals by enabling new upselling techniques and increasing viewer engagement with multiscreen content discovery.

Shahid by MBC GROUP is the world’s leading Arabic streaming platform.

Think360, which will be a fully managed service supported by ThinkAnalytics on AWS, will play a key role in supporting MBC’s growth targets as it cements Shahid’s position as the region’s top premium streaming provider and the exclusive home of WWE content. In addition to its presence in MENA, Shahid is also available internationally in markets including Australia, France, the United Kingdom and North America. (newportworldresorts.com)

Using Think360, Shahid will showcase its free content as well as recommend the best premium content, personalised to each user of its free Shahid service, with the goal of upselling these viewers to its premium SVOD service (which includes Shahid VIP and Shahid VIP + Sports). By making it easy for Shahid viewers to find content from its massive library with a new sophisticated search function and fully personalised recommendations showcasing the depth of its VOD catalogue, Think360 will increase users average watch time, and result in higher engagement across both free and premium services. This will help meet Shahid’s goals of increasing ad revenues on the free AVOD service and increasing loyalty on Shahid VIP and other SVOD packages.

Features that influenced Shahid’s decision were Think360’s advanced search and dynamic personalisation capabilities integrated with rich analytics and performance reporting through ThinkInsight and ThinkUX. Control of the user experience with continual improvement through ThinkInsight’s A/B testing and ThinkEditorial’s ability to combine editorial expertise with machine learning algorithms were also key.

Natasha Matos-Hemingway, Chief Commercial and Marketing Officer (VOD) at MBC GROUP commented: “We are immensely proud of what we have already achieved with Shahid and Shahid VIP, and we attribute much of this success to MBC GROUP’s investment in great local and international content, including a recent deal to become the new home of WWE in the region”.

“But to stay ahead of the game, we need new ways to improve our service, delight with our customer experience and ultimately to better monetise our content. We selected ThinkAnalytics as our partner for its best-of-breed recommendations engine and analytics, as well as the company’s experience in the industry.”

Samuel Sweet, CEO EMEA & Asia Pacific at ThinkAnalytics, added: “This strategic partnership further reinforces Think360’s position as the world’s leading media content discovery and viewer insight platform. We look forward to working with Shahid on enhancing the platform’s user experience, and introducing new monetisation techniques that will help Shahid achieve its business goals.” BCS Bureau