ARY Digital Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Salman Iqbal has responded to Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal’s remarks on getting Pakistani content its due space on global streaming platforms, saying that the country should build its own platform instead of depending on others.
“Respectfully sir, instead of relying on others, we need a homegrown OTT platform. We have the tech and creative skills to build it. Pakistani content already rules hearts globally,” he said, adding that they have worked very hard to bringing Pakistani content to millions of homes across the globe.
Revealing that ARY had previously turned down an offer from Netflix, he wrote, “We at ARY Digital have been approached by Netflix to give them content and we have refused.”
Iqbal also pointed to the size of Pakistan’s potential audience as a big enough reason to chart an independent path. “With a 1B+ audience understanding Urdu, the language of love and poetry, let’s make ‘Made in Pakistan’ global,” he added.
The statement comes after Ahsan Iqbal announced that the government was in talks with Netflix among other global streaming platforms to secure Pakistani content its “rightful, due space”, while also working to launch an indigenous OTT platform under the Uraan Pakistan initiative.
