How to Build a Regional OTT Like Shahid?
By idea2appAdmin
November 24, 2025
Table of Contents
The Middle East and North Africa region is now one of the world’s fastest-growing digital entertainment markets. The combination of a youthful mobile-first population, large video consumption habits, and favourable cultural acceptance for Arabic content makes the region ripe for the emergence of regional OTT propositions. Now it’s the perfect time to create a regional OTT like Shahid— a platform that is centred on Arabic storytelling, localized UX, multi-screen streaming, and intelligent monetization models.
The fact is, MENA consumers primarily consume content on platforms that respect and understand their cultural values, entertainment habits, and language requirements. This is often where the global OTT players stumble. Netflix and Amazon Prime have gained traction across the area, yet the need for Arabic originals, Ramadan series, Gulf dramas, Egyptian cinema, and exclusive regional content is on course to increase dramatically. Users would like a system that has the same essence of their identity, the same cultural background, and speaks their language.
Shahid’s the example of that success. It is the region’s most dominant local streaming platform, with Arabic-first UX, curated content library, strong Ramadan programming, and availability across mobile, Web, and smart TVs. The model works because it’s being built ground up for MENA—be it content, UI, payment methods, or delivery infrastructure.
What makes it a highly rewarding time for businesses to begin building the next regional OTT, such as Shahid, is what this climate brings. The demand is strong, there’s competition within the regional players, and local content in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), Egypt, and the Levant all continue to grow year on year. With the proper tech, streaming architecture, and cultural knowledge, a regional OTT service can take off like lightning and be the next big MENA entertainment brand.
Shahid was the first to coin the idea of MENA-first streaming experience: Arabic content, Arabic UX , and regional viewing behavior. It did not just mimic Western OTT models — it localized everything for the viewers of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, and the North Africa region. To truly execute on building a regional OTT like Shahid, you need to understand this model and how it ties in with regional users.
Shahid is not just a library of VOD. It’s an entire entertainment ecosystem that includes original programming, live channels, exclusive content drops, seasonal campaigns , and culturally relevant programs. Ramadan is the biggest month for on-screen viewing in the region, during which Shahid asserts its dominance with exclusive dramas and reality TV. Time-oriented approach. As for the time sequence, a negotiated process is the only model that applies to the Middle East, and it involves active engagement.
It’s a battlefield for home-grown OTT platforms against global players who suffer from MENA localization. They have shallow Arabic content libraries, not fully optimised UX for RTL (from right to left), and payment systems not adapted to local habits. This vacuum provided a stage for a genuinely regional movement to thrive. Shahid exploited this void by seizing the moment to bet on Arabic originals, regional talent, lifestyle shows, and Gulf-oriented productions.
One thing is clear: users are increasingly seeking platforms that recognize who they are. That’s a big plus if you are building out a regional OTT like Shahid, as MENA consumers tend to be more loyal to platforms that mirror their own culture.
Shahid was successful because it addressed three significant regional pain points: language, infrastructure, and payments. The app delivered a clean Arabic UX, it streamed reliably across internet speeds ranging from MENA, and integrated with local payment methods like STC Pay, Mada, and carrier billing. These tweaks felt welcoming to users and removed friction from the streaming experience.
This regional-first mindset is essential when you construct a local OTT like Shahid. Little to nothing, and we see that changing, must be redesigned for MENA users, from typography choices to subscription flows. It’s that authenticity that fosters adoption, retention, and long-term brand advocacy.
The reason a MENA-centric OTT platform needs to be created differently from other worldwide streaming sites is that the region has its own internet characteristics, device types, and viewing trends. To launch a successful regional OTT service like Shahid, your architecture has to be stable, support multiple languages, and comply with regional regulations while delivering great content performance over countries where the network infrastructure is highly varied.
Shahid’s architecture is designed to support massive concurrency during peak times like Ramadan evenings, live channels, and new episode releases. This calls for a multi-level streaming stack that can vertically scale across resolution, horizontally scale to different connections, and deliver quick load times in regions with low connectivity. The backend also must adapt to different monetization models — SVOD, AVOD, freemium, premium episodes, and exclusive content windows.
In addition, a Middle East OTT needs to implement robust metadata management to manage Arabic titles and actor information, as well as a right-to-left reading experience and local censorship. The platform will benefit from such a design because it was built with Arabic-first thinking, not tacked on as an afterthought.
The middle means high-speed fiber networks in places like Riyadh and Dubai, moderate-speed 4G networks in Egypt and Morocco, and much slower Internet connections across the region. This is where adaptive bitrate streaming comes in. Your platform has to produce multiple high-quality tiers, even down to low-bitrate, mobile-friendly streams. Advanced DRM should also be adopted to protect content against piracy, which continues to plague the region.
If you are creating a local OTT service, like Shahid, then the infrastructure needs to support real-time CDN switching, multi-region load balancing, and continuous optimization of quality. The modern OTT architecture also has timed metadata and multilanguage audio tracks, subtitles, translation, and offline downloads.
Designing for the MENA market is designing with two languages. Arabic is a must for cultural integrity, and English serves the expat population in the GCC. A bilingual engine needs to be dual RTL (for Arabic) and LTR (for English), enabling users to dynamically switch languages at every level of the platform.
It means creating UI components, playback controls, search algorithms, and metadata systems that can respond immediately regardless of the reading direction. When you’re building a regional OTT, like Shahid is, the multilanguage system becomes part of the central pillars, not just a front-end translation layer.
A successful Arabic streaming service won’t be only about content, but will reflect a seamless experience tailored to local habits. Users are looking for the ability to easily browse, quick access to Arabic shows, support for children’s profiles, and playback on mobile devices in high quality. Solid feature set: KTV is a Great retention tool and is being marketed as the trusted MENA hub for entertainment (and also GCC).
When you launch a regional OTT like Shahid, your feature list is the biggest competitive advantage. Audiences seek platforms that are native, intuitive, and culturally appropriate. Every feature should approach that in doing something meaningful to remove friction and genuinely improve viewing.
Arabic users engage better with an interface they are accustomed to.” The effort needs to be intelligent when it comes to surfacing recommendations, such as those for personalized lists in the Arabic language, trending Ramadan series, Gulf dramas, Egyptian classics, or recommending videos for children. Parental controls are also very important for a family home in a remote area. The viewing experience also has to be seamless, with fast loading times and clear episode organization with instant switching between audio languages.
The admin portal needs to enable content ingest workflows, metadata inputting, categorization, publication scheduling, and geographic constraints. MENA rights are often country by country, so the ability to control exactly which titles end up where is critical in this part of the world. On-the-fly analytics for admins let them track viewership, manage promotions , and do scheduling around seasonal spikes such as Ramadan or national holidays.
While mobile is the most popular device to watch content for users across MENA, smart TV penetration is growing quickly in both Saudi Arabia and the UAE. A Shahid-like platform has to work with Android TV, Apple TV, Samsung Tizen, LG WebOS, and Fire TV. When creating a regional OTT like Shahid, multi-screen availability is key to scale and to increase household penetration.
Arabic UX isn’t about make-up – it’s the secret sauce to winning in the MENA streaming market. Shahid expanded so quickly because it “knows the customer,” and knows that viewers in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Egypt, and the wider Middle East prefer platforms that feel culturally native. If you are building a regional OTT like Shahid, your UX has to be designed around Arabic-first design principles, not directly translated from English.
RTL is not enough for Arabic UX. It requires certain typography, button styles, spacing differences, color psychology, and based on the trends and cultural expectations, navigation should be like that. Arabic script behaves in a way that Latin text doesn’t: letters join, words stretch, and line breaks are different in the extreme. When the UI isn’t designed for this, it becomes visually jarring and discourages interaction.
MENA audiences also don’t want it to be difficult to discover content. They want trending shows, Ramadan specials, Gulf dramas, and children’s content to be featured. Emotional design is important. Rich hues of gold, navy, emerald, and deep purple are popular choices in GCC markets; warm palettes work best for North African tastes. That last part quickly and powerfully drives adoption success.”
Designing from right to left is standard practice in the MENA. Yes, each and every UI element—menus, episode lists, carousels, icons, buttons, sliders. Typography is equally important. This allows you to save much vertical space by using it – Arabic fonts need a little bit more of that, just like line heights and compatible font porches on devices.
When you do build a regional OTT like Shahid, the RTL has to be built in at the framework level, not bolted on as a last-minute fix. This creates a visual coherence and maintains the native Arabic experience solid.
GCC markets like posh looks – decent design, nice annotations, and shiny thumbs. Such low readers are accustomed to familiarity, straightforwardness, and quick navigation. This means your UX experience must balance a luxurious look with ease of use.
Cultural expectations also guide micro-interactions. Shahid’s features include easy-to-find labelled content, ‘next episode’ functionalities, parent controls, and linking of topically similar content from around the region. A culturally relevant UX Established trust, retention, and loyalty across the Middle East.
One major hurdle in the MENA market is content delivery. “The internet’s quality varies hugely by country, city, and even neighbourhood. In order to successfully launch a regional OTT like Shahid, you need to include an efficiently managed CDN strategy, which would ensure smooth playback during peak times or peak evenings during Ramadan, when millions of viewers are streaming at the same time.
MENA geography makes this complex. KSA has relatively extensive coverage with varying network quality. The UAE has world-class connectivity. Egypt has fluctuating bandwidth conditions. North Africa is home to dense populations in vast territories. A unique CDN cannot broadcast on all these markets with the same quality.
This is the reason Shahid, Netflix, and Amazon Prime go for multi-CDN architectures. They switch traffic to the fastest route possible on the fly. The outcome is less buffering, faster episode loading, and an overall better viewing experience.
Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE expect very reliable streaming, particularly during live broadcasts or when new episodes are released. Multi-CDN routing makes sure traffic spikes don’t bury any one provider. Decisions must be routed in milliseconds based on user proximity, health of ISPs, and local network congestion.
Once you construct a regional OTT like Shahid, multi-CDN becomes de rigueur — not nice to have — for GCC reliability.
Edge caching puts popular content closer to viewers by being stored locally in key MENA cities for low latency. Uploads of shows that air during Ramadan, Egyptian melodramas, and Gulf reality TV tend to dominate traffic. Up to 99% reduction in latency. Caching these assets close to the user is a game-changer for performance.
And then there are robust data center ecosystems in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt that could support edge caching. Regional caching deployment in North Africa. A clever caching method helps reduce latencies, saves on bandwidth expenses, and increases playback quality throughout the region.
Monetization is one of the key pillars when you construct a regional OTT like Shahid. The MENA is a special blend of premium-loving GCC wealthy users and massive audiences in Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco, the habits of which make ads just as lucrative as their Western counterparts. This is why hybrid monetization—SVOD + AVOD—is the best approach in the region.
In addition to subscriptions, a local OTT platform monetizes through dynamic ads, branded content, sponsorships, Ramadan campaigns, and exclusive content windows. Ad buyers in Saudi Arabia and the UAE are moving a lot of money to OTT, as streaming provides them with better targeting, tracking, and engagement than traditional TV does.
In order to compete, your platform needs a modern ad-tech engine — one that includes server-side ad insertion (SSAI), dynamic targeting, personalized ad pods, frequency capping, and cross-device tracking. The aim is to continue hosting ads without spoiling the user experience.
Shahid Derives its Strength from Its Hybrid Model. Users can stream free content with commercials (AVOD) or sign up for VIP subscriptions for an ad-free experience and exclusives. It is extremely effective to use such a layered model in the Middle East, where it gives the opportunity for all economic sectors to participate.
If you’re building a regional OTT, like for instance Shahid, this means that your monetization engine must be able to handle:
– Ad-supported free tiers
– Premium subscription tiers
– Live channel monetization
Pay-per-view for a sporting event or concert
– Seasonal or Ramadan premium pack
– Exclusive early-access episodes
The future of MENA OTT monetization is Dynamic Ad Insertion. Instead of ads baked in — “burned in” is the industry term — your system can serve ads, dynamically, in real time based on user profile, device, location, and viewing behavior. Saudi and UAE brands offer even higher CPM rates for custom targeting.
DAI also allows geolocation targeting; ad campaigns can be selective to the region because advertising rules in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt are not all identical. When you establish a regional OTT play like Shahid, the ad tech stack becomes a huge revenue contributor that scales naturally with viewers.
B2D in payment culture across MENA. There is a vast difference between the B2D that regions typically adopt. Credit card use is high in GCC countries, whereas in Egypt and North Africa, the reliance still remains on cash-based or wallet-driven mechanisms. A winning platform will incorporate payment methods that suit local behavior. Aiding Shahid’s fast expansion was an understanding of payment flows that resonated in each country.
When you design a regional OTT like Shahid, your subscription engine must be able to handle multiple flexible plans, currencies, and local payment methods. A single billing system also allows users to subscribe, renew, or upgrade with minimum friction.
Mada cards and STC Pay are widely used in Saudi Arabia. This imbalance suggests the preference of UAE users towards Apple Pay, Google Pay, and local cards, said a media statement quoting Idealz Founder Jad Halaoui. Bahrain uses BenefitPay. Egypt is dominated by Fawry and mobile wallets. Conversion skyrockets by supporting these payment options.
Local payment methods are not a ‘nice-to-have’; they’re fundamental. “If these payment options are not part of the transaction, most people in that region will not sign up. This is why global OTTs often find it hard to scale and monetise in MENA.
Carrier billing is one of the best monetization tools in MENA. Subscribe with your mobile balance/ post-paid bill STC, Etisalat, Zain, Ooredoo, or Vodafone! This discourages friction, jarring in an ageist or region-penalized generation.
Carrier billing contributes to retention because users don’t have to renew subscriptions manually. When you create a regional OTT such as Shahid, suddenly carrier billing is the most powerful conversion tool— doubling subscription numbers in GCC markets, for instance.
Building a MENA-first streaming platform: structured, region-aware, and optimized for Arabic UX & multi-country streaming. Building an OTT setup for Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, etc, is very different than building one for the West. The regional situation should also be considered in the timeline, workflows, and mechanisms.
How to Build a Successful Regional OTT Like Shahid. In the process of building a regional OTT as successful as Shahid, your development approach needs to focus on architecture, content rights infrastructure, and CDN integrations. Arabic design testing is heavily under MENA conditions.
The project starts by defining your Content Library, the target markets, rights windows, and the Monetisation strategy. Rights in MENA can be quite country-specific, so upfront planning is a must before breaking ground. It’s also here that you establish your UX style, brand identity, and content structure.
The development starts with the dual language UX (Arabic + English), then we build the streaming engine, CMS workflows, payment service integration, metadata systems, and DRM / Geo-blocking. Multi-device support is under development concomitantly: mobile, Web, smart TVs (Tizen and WebOS), Apple TV, and Android TV.
The last stage is extensive testing in a MENA-deployed network. Saudi Arabia and Egypt have to be tested one by one based on bandwidth differentials. Performance in different regions needs to be tested against the CDN. Following stabilization, we start with a staged regional rollout—usually first in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and then Egypt, Levant, and North Africa.
There are also a number of key success factors that include regular traffic monitoring, optimising the campaign, and scheduling content according to local seasons (especially during Ramadan).
Development cost of creating a MENA-oriented OTT platform. If you would like to receive an estimation, you have to take into account the complexity of the streaming engine, content strategy, device support (due to Apple TV and Roku), and requirements in Arabic UX. A Shahid level of service would need to cope with large peaks in viewership, bilingual UI, strong DRM, carrier billing, and multi-country content rights. All of this adds to development and operational investment.
When you are constructing a regional OTT such as Shahid, your cost structure is determined by three key features: technology, content, and delivery. Technology Platform development, multi-device functionality, and back-end infrastructure. Content will be a mix of licensing, originals , and metadata work.’ It includes CDN bandwidth delivery, with edge caching and streaming optimization for MENA’s diverse internet landscapes.
Each circuit plays a critical part in the overall budget. The biggest cost drivers are:
– App development for various devices (mobile, TV, web)
– Arabic+English UX systems
– Transcoding and streaming infrastructure
– Multi-CDN partnerships
– Content ingestion pipelines
– DRM, watermarking, and rights security
– Sophisticated ad-tech systems serving AVOD and DAI
– A cooperation integration for all the MENA markets
– Admin consoles, analytics dashboard, and CMS
It takes a long-term vision of what MENA-focused OTT can be, good infrastructure that scales and keeps content quality high & player responsive even when the network has Ramadan-levels of activity.
In the Middle East, Shahid and Netflix both pay a lot of money for bandwidth and CDN costs, as viewers stream a lot through mobile networks (as well as smart TVs). Edge caching helps you cut costs, but a significant amount of your monthly egress spend is dedicated to video delivery and cloud infrastructure.
“If you launched a regional OTT like Shahid, the CDN costs will be different per region. Saudi Arabia leads the GCC in both streaming traffic; Egypt has the largest audience base, and the UAE leads for Smart TV reach. Such elements define the amount of bandwidth that is used each month and determine delivery charges.
Delivering an OTT service in the Middle East demands gravitas, cultural focus, and stepping stones to growth. The right way is the Shaihd way: begin in GCC, then polish, and expand wisely. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have good monetization potential; Egypt and the Levant bring scale; North Africa provides long-dated volume.
When you create a regional OTT such as Shahid, the launch strategy is hugely complex: you have to include content preferences, mobile habits, and payment options, and cultural peaks of audience activity.
If you are unsure about where to launch first, it should be in these markets for the following reasons: 1- Saudi Arabia and the UAE should be your Lead-off Launch Markets:- Reasons?
– High subscription willingness
– Strong internet quality
– High Smart TV adoption
– Demand is high for Arabic originals
– Effective ad revenue per user in AVOD tiers
With a GCC-first approach, you have solid early revenue and quality engagement on your platform.
Egypt is MENA’s second-largest content market. It also sees huge numbers of viewers, and bandwidth varies a lot, so good CDN optimization is critical. The Levant markets (Jordan, Iraq, Palestine, and Lebanon) also consume a relatively high proportion of Arabic content. North Africa, which includes Morocco and Algeria, gives it scale and a younger demographic.
A staggered rollout will help keep things stable on a regional basis and maximize longer-term uptake.
Idea2App is a team of dedicated OTT experts focusing on creating fully localized OTT media platforms for MENA markets – Arabic UX, Multi-CDN streaming, carrier billing integration, and heavy regional personalization. Hire Idea2App to create a local OTT platform in the vein of Shahid, and you have a team that is sensitive to MENA’s culture, viewing patterns, network restrictions, and economics. As a market leading video streaming app development company, we are here to help you.
We are behind Arabic-first UX frameworks with perfect RTL integration, scalable streaming engines compatible with Gulf and North African networks, and solid DRM; we support mobile-first workflows and build multi-device apps for Smart TVs, iOS & Android phones, tablets, the Web & connected boxes. Our edge caching and multi-CDN strategy guarantees a seamless experience during Ramadan peaks and giant content drops.
Idea2App also constructs ad-tech ecosystems for AVOD, DAI, or hybrid business models—allowing you to monetize in any market. Combine features and create your own video ecosystem. We integrate every local payment method from carrier billing to STC Pay, Fawry, BenefitPay, Apple Pay, and Mada, amongst others.
Digital entertainment is going through a revolution in the MENA region. There’s hunger for localised content, culturally tuned UX, and streaming platforms that actually feel Middle Eastern. With the increase in Arabic originals being invested in, strong network infrastructure, and an explosion of mobile adoption, the stage is set for OTT platforms to establish themselves regionally. If you decide to start a regional OTT, such as Shahid, the market that you step into is an expanding one where local demand far exceeds what’s being supplied. LK With the proper architecture, bilingual UX, multi-CDN delivery strategy, localised payments, and robust ad-tech, you can quickly scale up your product to compete with existing players.
With Idea2App as your OTT solution provider, we bring everything together to make sure your OTT platform is built for success – technically, culturally, and commercially. The opportunity is huge, the audience is ripe , and the region is primed for a new wave of digital entertainment leaders.”
A good MVP takes 4–6 months. By full multi-device support and advanced ad-tech, we’re probably 8–12 months out.
Yes. For the MENA market , it’s a must for Arabic UX, and also for GCC expats, it’s key in English.
Critical. Stream quality is primarily going to be determined by multi-CDN routing and which CDN has the closest edge caching in your region (Saudi Arabia / UAE / Egypt / North Africa, etc).
Hybrid AVOD + SVOD serves as the best model for premium users and free-tier viewers.
Yes. Our OTT platforms are integrated with all the big MENA payment systems, including carrier billing.
Yes, by spotlighting niche content, Arabic originals, a culture-based UX, and localized monetization methods.