PROSHOT, a Belgium-based media company, is set to launch its streaming service Filmpot in the Gulf region with focus on local content, and wants to play a part in the Pearlywood bandwagon.
It also has plans to form a joint venture for production of films and serials as well as create a professional and premium video-on-demand service for the Middle East region.
“We’re very interested for setting up a joint venture in Bahrain for filmmaking and attracting further investment to our platform,” Iman Khatibzadeh, founder and chief executive of Proshot Media, told the GDN.
“The plan for creating a Bahrain Pearlywood is the best news for filmmakers in the Middle East and I plan to work with interested parties to make professional movies.”
Mr Khatibzadeh
Mr Khatibzadeh said his company has been working on this project – a foray into the Middle East – for the last three years.
“We plan to launch the Filmpot streaming app in the UAE in August,” he added. “Our app will be engineered to be as inclusive as possible to make it compatible with all smart TVs and IPTV boxes and, therefore, will be available for viewing throughout the Middle East and beyond.”
In an interview with Arabian Business, a weekly business publication published in Dubai, he said Filmpot would be ‘different from the likes of market leaders Netflix and Amazon Prime’ and will be streaming movies from Hollywood, Bollywood, Iran, etc dubbed in Arabic.
“We will also have Arabic movies with subtitles in English, French and Farsi,” added Mr Khatibzadeh, an Iranian-origin entrepreneur settled in Belgium for the last 20 years.
Mr Khatibzadeh said though Proshot, the holding company, is based out of Belgium, he has plans to set up headquarters for Filmpot in a Gulf state.
“This is because we plan to focus mainly on the Middle East market, unlike Netflix and Amazon Prime which are mainly targeting the US and Europe,” he said. “Filmpot is a product that is coming at the best time to fill a market gap.”
Mr Khatibzadeh claimed the company had already raised $20 million from private investors and internal resources for the launch of operations in the Gulf region.
He said the production costs of movies and serials in a proposed joint venture could be recovered from advertising on the Filmpot platform, besides user-subscription revenues. It is understood he is already in talks with an Indian company.
Filmpot will have a monthly and annual subscription model, with annual fees pegged at about $180 (around BD70).
As reported in the GDN, opening up the kingdom to the film industry is one of a number of initiatives announced by the Industry, Commerce and Tourism Minister Zayed Alzayani.
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