News DeskDubai, UAE – CABSAT, the leading event for the broadcast, media, satellite, and entertainment industries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), marks its 30th anniversary by renewing its partnership with HConsult, a top content market specialist in the Arabic-speaking MENA region. The partnership will host the MENA Co-Production Salon, an exclusive gathering scheduled from May 21 to 23, 2024, at the Dubai World Trade Centre.
The Co-Production Salon, located in a specially designed VIP lounge near the Content Congress area, is an invitation-only lounge that brings together the region’s most prestigious production houses, OTT platforms, TV networks, content investors, and brand representatives. It serves as a crucial platform for exploring co-production and investment opportunities, with the aim of creating internationally viable TV and film content.
Reflecting on the previous year, the Co-Production Salon was a highly sought-after edition, with over 250 companies applying for entry. Due to stringent participation criteria and the intimate nature of the event, only about a quarter of applicants were admitted. Attendees had the opportunity to participate in an average of 15 high-quality meetings each, resulting in numerous collaborative investment deals in content production both within and outside the MENA region.
Heba Korayem, Content Market and Partnerships Specialist at Hconsult and host of the MENA Co-Production Salon, said, “We have tracked USD 8 million in content investment through partnership deals directly resulting from the meetings conducted at the Co-Production Salon in CABSAT. Several new deals are still unfolding.”
Elena Brodskaia, Head of International Content Strategy at the MENA region’s first Entertainment super App ‘Yango’, underscored her experience from the previous year, which was held just months prior to the app’s remarkable launch in the MENA region. She said, “We participated in Co-production Salon at CABSAT 2023 at the onset of ‘Yango’ Play’s development and it offered a unique opportunity to connect with numerous leading production houses of the region all in one place. The panel discussions on Ramadan shows and the insightful analytics presented by HConsult were also very useful and it helped us in shaping our content strategy for the app’s launch.”
