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Source: http://www.arabianbusiness.com
Twitter has announced it will stream its first live show in the Middle East and North Africa on the platform for audiences from May 17.
Created in partnership with Hollywood production firm Propogate and Arabic language content creators Yallafeed, part of Dubai-based Stepfeed group, the social media platform’s first live show in the region will be called #HawanahZein and will cover news, social commentary, and content about news, celebrities, sports and entertainment.
The show will be sponsored by Unilever brands Lipton, Omo and Knorr and will merge Twitter based content with live conversations hosted by content creators and identical twins Abdullah and Nour Ali Saad Fakhr.
“STEP Group’s brands; YallaFeed and StepFeed, are among the first publishers in the region that we’ve partnered with for Twitter’s In Stream Sponsorships; a program pairing advertisers and publishers. We have now extended this partnership to bring the first live show on Twitter to the region,” said Kinda Ibrahim, Director Media Partnerships, MENA, Twitter. “As millenials are consuming more live content, such a show will connect with a hard to reach audience that relies on social timelines to discover and consume content.”
The live stream will be free and accessible globally to everyone including those not subscribed to Twitter as long as they have the app on their devices.
Twitter has been experimenting with live feeds on its platforms in other geographies. Original live programs and productions have debuted in the US on Twitter, including AM to DM by BuzzFeed News (@AM2DM), and Bloomberg Media’s 24/7 global social news network @TicToc.
Recent research conducted by Hall & Partners revealed that 47% and 46% of users in UAE and Saudi Arabia respectively are interested in watching a live-streamed, exclusive show on Twitter in Ramadan.
“Twitter is one of our most important news sources and its focus on the live, public conversation has helped our content team tackle deep insights. Now, the platform is fully adopted as part of our daily brainstorming and editorial meetings,” said Bahaa Moussalli, Co-founder & CMO of STEP Group. “We’re really excited about this show because we’re taking a decades-old TV format and re-interpreting it into today’s social news entertainment. It will enable us to engage with our audience while delivering high quality live programming during Ramadan,” he continued.
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