Starz Play, the on-demand video streaming service available in 19 countries across the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region, said it has signed an agreement with 20th Century Fox Television Distribution to provide award-winning movies and series to its subscribers.

The agreement adds a large number of blockbuster action and animation movies along with award-winning TV series to the Starz Play content library, said the company in a statement.

Khaled Benchouche, the senior VP of Programming and Acquisition at Starz Play, said: “We are delighted to be working with 20th Century Fox Television Distribution to bring its content to Starz Play. This deal meets the rising demand for premium Over-the-top content (OTT) titles and recognises the unique opportunities available to the Mena region.”

“By providing a host of well-known titles such as the series How I Met Your Mother, American Horror Story, The Americans, The Strain, Sons of Anarchy, 24 and Homeland and movies including A Good Day To Die Hard, The Wolverine and Turbo, our content library becomes even richer and more relevant to the region’s young population,” stated Benchouche.

Kristen Finney, executive VP (Europe, Middle East and Africa) at 20th Century Fox Television Distribution, said “We are thrilled to have closed our first deal with Starz Play and look forward to building upon our new partnership.”

“With its subscription video on demand service (SVOD) available throughout 19 countries in the Mena region, Starz Play will be the perfect place for audiences to further enjoy our television series and films,” he remarked.

Popular Fox movies will be available on Starzplay.com including horror movie The Hills Have Eyes 2 and action-comedy The Heat. The service will also welcome animated titles such as How to Train Your Dragon 2, The Croods, Epic, and The Penguins of Madagascar – some of the studio’s highest grossing movies.

TV series that will be added to Starz Play this December include the first five seasons of the award-winning series, American Horror Story, the first two seasons of The Americans, the first four seasons of Homeland and season one of The Strain. In addition, subscribers will also enjoy the first season of the ground-breaking series, Empire beginning February 2017.

Starz Play streams thousands of hours of blockbuster Hollywood movies, documentaries, children’s entertainment and ‘same-day-as-the-US’ series – plus dedicated Arabic content – to subscribers in 19 countries.

The platform features English, Arabic and French audio options and user interfaces, plus one-click Arabic subtitling.-TradeArabia News Service