Every year, someone declares linear television dead. The obituary turns out to be premature. Yes, viewing habits are shifting. Sure, streaming subscriptions in MENA are surging. But the data, when read carefully, tells a more nuanced story – one with profound implications for how GCC media planners should be structuring their video strategies in 2026. The question is no longer whether linear television (TV) is declining. It is. The question worth asking is: declining relative to what, and for which audiences? The answers should fundamentally reshape how brands think about the screen in the corner of every living room across the region.
Context matters enormously in the GCC. The region’s media consumption profile is distinct from the Western markets where most of these studies originate. High smartphone penetration, a young and digitally fluent population, and the dominance of South Asian and Arab diaspora audiences – communities for whom linear television carries deep cultural and linguistic resonance – all create a different baseline.
The audience segments that linear still owns
The demographic data is instructive. Adults aged 65 and older spend 75 per cent of their TV viewing time on linear broadcasts, and those between 50 and 64 spend 63 per cent of their screen time on traditional TV.
Among the GCC’s South Asian communities – the single largest expatriate group in the UAE – linear television channels in Hindi, Urdu and regional Indian languages carry audiences that over-the-top (OTT) platforms have yet to meaningfully replicate at scale. These are not fringe audiences. They are the core purchasing demographic for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), telecoms, banking, real estate and automotive brands operating in the Gulf. Live sport reinforces this point sharply. Research consistently shows that nearly 90 per cent of sports viewing still happens on traditional or multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) globally, even as linear viewing overall declines.
In the GCC, cricket and international football carry audiences whose engagement during a live match is categorically different from on-demand consumption. The concentration of attention, the liveness, and the social co-viewing that live sport generates on linear simply cannot be recreated by a streaming replay the following morning.
The OTT opportunity is real – and it is already here
Critically for media planners, most of the linear channels that GCC audiences love are now also available on connected TV (CTV). Sony Entertainment Television – one of the most-watched South Asian channels in the region – is available to StarzPlay subscribers. This is not an either/or universe. The same content, the same audience, and increasingly, the same inventory can be accessed across both a satellite dish and a smart TV connected to the internet. The channel has not moved. The screen has.
Building the integrated approach: one audience, three touchpoints
An integrated video strategy in the GCC context should be built on three principles. First, use linear for reach and brand salience. Nothing in the media mix delivers simultaneous, at-scale reach as efficiently
as a well-placed spot on a top-rated South Asian or Arab channel during primetime or a live cricket match. This is the top of the funnel. Second, use OTT for precision and frequency. Platforms such as Shahid and StarzPlay offer audience targeting, viewability guarantees and performance measurement that linear cannot match. A brand can reinforce its linear message with a targeted pre-roll for the same demographic at a fraction of the clicks per thousand impressions (CPM). Third, use CTV to close the loop. With 81 per cent of viewers now streaming directly on smart TVs, connected television is the convergence point – the same big screen experience as linear, with the addressability of digital. Interactive formats available on CTV now enable brands to move audiences from awareness to action without leaving the living room.
What this means for GCC media plans
The GCC advertising market is navigating a period of genuine complexity. Economic headwinds have tightened budgets. The temptation, when budgets compress, is to cut the oldest line item first – and linear television has been on the chopping block in every agency conversation for three years. That would be a mistake. Linear television’s value in the GCC is not just about the audiences it reaches today. It is about the trust infrastructure it carries. A brand that appears on prime-time Sony, Star, or MBC carries an implicit endorsement from a medium that the audience has grown up trusting. That credibility does not transfer automatically to a banner ad or a programmatic pre-roll. The integrated planner’s job in 2026 is not to choose between the old screen and the new one. It is to understand that they are the same screen – and to plan accordingly. The Video Guide you hold is built on precisely this premise. The channels listed here are not relics; they are the foundation of a converged video ecosystem that spans satellite, streaming and smart TV – and for brands that plan across all three, the opportunity has never been greater.
