Pakistan in talks with Netflix and plans a local streaming platform
Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal says Pakistani dramas deserve more space on global services, and that Islamabad wants its own OTT platform too.
Pakistan is in discussions with global streaming platforms, Netflix among them, to give Pakistani films and television dramas more visibility, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal has said. The Karachi paper The News reported his remarks on 14 July.
In a post on X, the minister said Pakistani dramas and films have strong demand abroad but have been denied their rightful space on major services because of regional politics. He said the government wants a more equitable regional framework with global platforms and is working towards an independent Pakistani OTT platform. The paper linked the effort to Uraan Pakistan, the government's export strategy for creative industries.
The report gave no detail on the status or terms of the Netflix talks.
A hard market for subscriptions
The News spoke to Mubariz Siddiqui, a lawyer who works with startups and technology companies. He argued that Pakistan should have several streaming platforms and that local and global services are not an either or choice. He said government should not run a platform, calling streaming a completely private enterprise.
Siddiqui said a global player such as Netflix would change the economics because it sells to a worldwide audience, while local networks earn mainly from free viewers with low purchasing power. He suggested pitching content as desi, meaning South Asian, rather than strictly Pakistani, since that audience also lives in India, Bangladesh, the Middle East, the UK and North America.
The paper set out the obstacles. Local platforms have struggled to build paid subscription businesses because much television content is free on YouTube or broadcast TV, piracy is entrenched and incomes are modest. Industry executives quoted from a podcast a year earlier said the OTT sector relies heavily on advertising supported video, with subscription revenue underdeveloped. Siddiqui said original exclusive content is the biggest barrier and very expensive, so he would not advise new founders to enter it. Established networks with large libraries are better placed, he said.
Reported from coverage in The News.
