OSN (Orbit Showtime Network) is a media and entertainment company based in the

Middle East and North Africa The Middle East and North Africa (MENA), also referred to as West Asia and North Africa (WANA) or South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA), is a geographic region which comprises the Middle East (also called West Asia) and North Africa together ...

(MENA) region, with its headquarters in

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

. The company was formed in 2009 through the merger of

Orbit Communications Company Orbit Communications Company was a privately owned pay television network headquartered in Bahrain. Owned by Saudi Arabiabased Mawarid Holding (via Digital Media Systems), it was the first fully digital, multi-channel, multilingual, pay televi ...

and

Showtime Arabia Showtime Arabia was Showtime Networks pay television service in the Middle East and North Africa. It was a joint venture between Kuwaiti holding company KIPCO (79% stake) and American media firm Viacom Inc. (21% stake). The company was incorp ...

. OSN offers both a

direct-broadcast satellite Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location.ITU Radio Regulations, Section IV. Radio Stations and Systems ...

service, known as OSN TV, and a

video streaming service Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downloadin ...

, OSN+. The company is owned and operated by Panther Media Group, a

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

registered in the

Dubai International Financial Centre The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) is a special economic zone in Dubai covering , established in 2004 as a financial hub for companies operating throughout the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia (MEASA) markets. DIFC is regulated ...

(DIFC). Its primary shareholders are the

KIPCO Kuwait Projects Company (Holding), known as KIPCO, is an investment holding company in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. KIPCO, with consolidated assets of $40.1 billion as of 31 December 2023, operates in 20+ countries across multi ...

(Kuwait Projects Company) and the

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

n-based Mawarid Group.

History

OSN was established in 2009 by the merger of two of the region's largest

pay-TV Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, b ...

operators:

and

. OSN announced in November 2023 that it would merge its streaming service, OSN+, with

Anghami Anghami ( , "melodic"/"my melodies") is the first legal music streaming platform and digital distribution company in the Arab world. It launched in November 2012 in Lebanon, providing unlimited Arabic and international music to stream and downlo ...

Inc., the leading music and entertainment streaming platform in the MENA region. The transaction, which was completed in April 2024, resulted in OSN Group becoming the majority shareholder in Anghami with a 55.45% stake. The deal valued OSN+ at $365 million and Anghami at $139 million. Elie Habib, a co-founder of Anghami, was appointed as the CEO of the combined entity. The merger created a comprehensive entertainment platform with over 120 million registered users, combining OSN+'s library of 18,000 hours of video content with Anghami's catalog of over 100 million songs and podcasts. On 24 March 2025,

Warner Bros. Discovery Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Outline of entertainment, entertainment Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It was formed from WarnerMedi ...

made a minority investment in OSN's subsidiary, OSN Streaming Ltd. This deepened the long-standing content partnership between the two companies, where OSN serves as the exclusive regional distributor for

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

and other WBD content. In May 2025, OSN partnered with the

advertising technology This is a list of online advertising technology companies. *4INFO * Adbot * Adform *Adobe Systems * ADTECH * Adtile Technologies *Afilias * Alawar Entertainment * Amazon.com * AppNexus * Badgeville * BrightRoll *comScore * Criteo * Daylife * D ...

company Magnite to launch addressable advertising across its satellite and

video-on-demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typical static broadcasting ...

services. This allows for targeted ads to be delivered to OSN's

set-top box A set-top box (STB), also known as a cable converter box, cable box, receiver, or simply box, and historically television decoder or a converter, is an information appliance device that generally contains a Tuner (radio)#Television, TV tuner inpu ...

es, a first for the company and a significant development in the region's television advertising market.

Services

OSN+

The company's first direct-to-consumer streaming platform was launched in August 2017 under the name Wavo. OSN+ is a subscription streaming service that launched under its current name in March 2022. In January 2022, OSN renewed its exclusive licensing agreement with

, ensuring it remains the sole regional carrier for HBO's programming. During the same period, it expanded its partnership with

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and Trade name, doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Show business, entertainment conglomerate (comp ...

to add content from the

Peacock Peafowl is a common name for two bird species of the genus '' Pavo'' and one species of the closely related genus '' Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae (the pheasants and their allies). Male peafowl are referred t ...

streaming service and

Sky Studios Sky Studios is a production company founded by Sky in June 2019 with assets from the now defunct Sky Vision. It develops, produces and funds original drama, comedy and documentary, and has investments in a number of production businesses in ...

. OSN also has deals with

Endeavor Content Fifth Season (formerly Endeavor Content) is an American multinational film and television production and distribution company. Fifth Season has financed, produced and distributed TV series and films such as '' Severance'', ''Killing Eve'', '' The ...

and

All3Media All3Media Limited is a British worldwide independent television, film, and digital production and distribution company based in London. The All3Media group consists of more than 50 production and distribution companies and labels from the Uni ...

to license premium series. In addition to licensed international content, the service develops original

Arabic-language Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

productions under the "OSN Originals" banner, including an adaptation of the US series '' Suits''.

References

External links

*
OSN+
{{CATV Africa, Asia, and Oceania Telecommunications companies established in 2009 Mass media companies established in 2009 Direct broadcast satellite services Companies of the United Arab Emirates Companies based in Dubai