CABSAT Marks its 30th Anniversary with Return of Prestigious MENA Co-Production Salon

Dubai, UAE, April 24, 2024 - CABSAT, the flagship event for broadcast, media, satellite, and entertainment industries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, celebrates its 30th anniversary by continuing its partnership with HConsult, a leading content market specialist in the Arabic-speaking MENA region, to host MENA Co-Production Salon. The exclusive gathering, scheduled from May 21 to 23, 2024 at the Dubai World Trade Centre, is poised to elevate the collaborative spirit that has long been a hallmark of the annual event.

The Co-Production Salon, which is located within a specially designed VIP lounge near the Content Congress area, is an exclusive, invitation-only lounge that assembles the region's most prestigious production houses, OTT platforms, TV networks, content investors, and brand representatives. It serves as a vital platform for exploring co-production and investment opportunities, aimed at creating internationally viable TV and film content.

2023: A Retrospective Look

Last year's Co-Production Salon was highly sought-after edition, with more than 250 companies applying for entry. However, due to stringent participation criteria and the intimate nature of the event, only about a quarter of applicants were admitted. The 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 MENA Co-Production Salon’s host, said: "There are huge things happening in this seemingly compact space. 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. Furthermore, several new deals are still unfolding, but for now, these are the deals we were authorised to announce."  

Stressing on the importance of CABSAT to the media industry, she added “The best part about consistently having the Co-Production Salon at CABSAT, is the diverse mix of companies it attracts. It serves as an ideal one-stop-shop for our participants, producers and broadcasters. When they attend Co-Production Salon, they stick around because they could also find everything they need, from new technologies to cameras and filming equipment, to broadcast support for their content.”

Elena Brodskaia, Head of International Content Strategy at the MENA region’s first Entertainment super App ‘Yango’, underscores her experience from the previous year, which was held just months prior to the app’s remarkable launch in the MENA region. This highlights the success and impact of the Co-Production Salon at CABSAT.

Elena 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.” 

For detailed information on participating or attending the MENA Co-Production Salon at CABSAT, please visit https://cabsat.com/co-production-salon

About CABSAT

ith a history of over 29 years, CABSAT is the only specialised event that draws more than 14,000 business professionals from the MEASA region’s media, content, and digital industries. Over the years, the event has welcomed the highest number of regional attendees, including engineers, system integrators, and broadcasters from the content creation, broadcast, and satellite industries, as well as content buyers, sellers, producers, and distributors. In line with its vision to provide a platform for business, networking, and knowledge sharing for the MEASA region’s media markets, CABSAT continues to work with innovative content creators, producers, broadcast technology providers, and content delivery companies to identify traits of success that will fuel the growth of the industry.

About HConsult

A Dubai-based consultancy specialized in facilitating business within the Content production and distribution industry in the Arabic-speaking MENA region. With a network of hundreds of Broadcasters, OTT platforms, and Arabic Production houses and investors, HConsult is known for tracking the MENA region’s content market activities, such as investment and distribution patterns for different types of Arabic and imported content within the Arabic-speaking world. HConsult uses this data to help international companies evaluate the scope of opportunity in the region, as well as identify scalable opportunities for investors in entertainment content relevant to the region.