Can a Gulf-based streaming platform compete with giants like Netflix by producing original content for local audiences? Saudi-owned MBC’s @ShahidVOD is trying and running into some unexpected problems.

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MBC is the Arab world’s largest media group. Last month it began streaming a series about 5 women who use a matchmaker to arrange secret marriages, commonly known as misyar, for them. Topic of the series “has never been seen or explored before in Saudi TV drama,” the group said.

Saudi Arabia’s media regulator banned the show barely four episodes into it after a huge backlash online at scenes depicting a marriage between a woman and a 15-year-old boy. Angry viewers accused MBC of promoting paedophilia. The show was taken down.

MBC, which has come under government control after the Ritz-Carlton anti-corruption campaign, has been trying to push the envelope with its streaming platform. But this is proving to be a tricky challenge in a region with strict regulations and sensitive audiences.

Earlier this week MBC released the trailer for “Rashash”, a crime drama series based on the true story of Rashash al-Otaibi, a criminal young man who was involved in murder and drug trafficking. He was eventually arrested and executed in 1989.

The group recruited top UK television screenwriter Tony Jordan of “EastEnders” fame to lead the project which had an unspecified “multi-million dollar” budget. MBC is calling it “the biggest production by a streaming platform in the region so far.”

But as soon as the trailer was published on social media, it was received with a furious storm of responses by members of the Otaiba tribe who believe the show is meant to slander them and incite tribal strife, even though MBC said show writers had access to government archives.

Rashash’s mother said the family was not asked for permission to bring the story to television and called on the government to ban the show. “Every family should be entitled to some privacy,” she told a local newspaper.

Despite the family’s pleas and the tribe’s campaign against the “Rashash”, it is highly unlikely that MBC would cancel the eight-part series, especially considering the resources they put into it and how they received cooperation from the authorities to produce it.

Judging by how they coped with criticism and calls for boycott in the past, I don’t think that MBC minds being at the centre of public debate because that usually brings more eyeballs for their products. But the latest controversy raises some new interesting questions..

..about the red lines artists must navigate as they try to create engaging content for streaming services to be consumed by local viewers who are increasingly accustomed to the high production standards set by the likes of Netflix, Disney and HBO.

In the case of streaming, viewers opt-in (and pay money) to watch. So at what point do regulators intervene in response to online backlash? How far can writers, actors, producers and directors go before a powerful individual, a tribe or a certain segment of society take offence?

Netflix removed an episode of @hasanminhaj’s show at Saudi request. An Oscar-winning director said major streamers had not picked up his Khashoggi docu over political concerns. If international stars are struggling with incidents like these, what does that mean for local talents?

These questions will become more pressing as Saudi Arabia continues its push to expand the arts and entertainment sector as part of MBS’s plan to diversify the economy and liberalise society.

MidEast’s largest media groups, MBC and Rotana, now both under government control. This will lead to awkward situations where government-backed productions are being regulated –or banned– by another government entity tasked with protecting social values and norms.

Arts need freedom in order to flourish but people in the budding creative industry want you to believe they can have it both ways: enjoy government support _and_ adapt to government control. Very delicate balance to achieve and would be extremely hard to maintain in the long run.

How many times can showbiz investors get burned before they stop taking risks out of fear they would be banned? Time will tell.

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