Disney+ is officially coming to the Middle East and North Africa region this summer. The expansion is the third phase covering a total of 42 new countries and 11 territories. It’s finally happening after more than 2 years since its initial release, as the announcement came from the Disney Arabia account.
Back catalog and Originals galore
Since May 2020, the one place where people could watch some of the Disney+ originals had been on OSN. Unfortunately, that deal recently ended when I asked about it on Twitter. It likely served as the precursor to their official launch.
With the launch, you’ll have direct access to everything from Star Wars, Marvel, National Geographic, and the wider cataloge from Disney. They will defintiely be adding Arabic subtitles and maybe even actual Arabic dubbing for alternate audio tracks.
Where and how much?
Disney+ will be officially available in the following countries: UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco.
The biggest question on people’s mind will be the subscription price. Will be a stadardized price regardless of location, or will be country-specific pricing? The service is priced much less than Netflix in other markets, in spite the latter recently announcing a price increase. Given the lack of credit card usage, it would be a better boon to partner with telecom providers with the option of carrier billing.
There isn’t an exact launch date aside from the Summer 2022 estimate. It would have been a bumper Ramadan if they decide to move it up a few months just for this region.
As of October 2021, the service currently has 118.1 Million subscribers acorss 64 countries. This new expansion will definitely see that number jump. Now would be a good time to have the app downloaded on your mobile device to keep it ready.
It’s going to be an interesting battle royale with so many SVOD options.
Image source: Disney Media Room
