MENA Platform YouSat.TV Teams With Writer-Producer Evan Mirzai To Push Library & Regional Talent

Andreas Wiseman
·3 min read

EXCLUSIVE: MENA platform YouSat.TV has formed a partnership with WGA Middle East writer and producer Evan Mirzai (Origins: The Journey of Humankind) to internationally promote its formats and the raft of regional talent with which it works.

YouSat.TV specializes in broadcasting user-generated and social media content and is now looking to license its library for international distribution.

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The library includes 673,000 uploads from 3,000 content creators, amounting to 45,000+ hours of content. Channel verticals include YouRock, airing music videos from beginners to well known local names, YouPlay, which broadcasts gamers, YouCook, focused on traditional and modern MENA recipes, as well as YouStyle, YouHealth, YouTravel and YouDance.

YouSat original content includes Mr. YouSat, hosted by 2019 Arab Content Creator of The Year Mohy Yasser, Good Luck with Iraqi creator-influencer Zinah Ahmed, and the Battle of the Rock tournament, a music video competition for the MENA region.

Mirzai’s banner House Of M will act as sales agent and international and U.S. point of contact for YouSat. He has also struck a first-look producing arrangement with the platform to discover and develop homegrown talent.

According to Mirzai, talent to have worked with YouSat.TV who could potentially be part of future content include Egyptian actor and musician Mohamed Ramadan, Lebanese violinist and dancer Hanine El Alam, Moroccan rap star Dizzy DROS, Iraqi presenter and influencer Zinah Ahmed, Iraqi-American actor and social media influencer Alexander Uloom, and Iraqi singer Rahma Riad. All of the above have significant social media followings.

Said Mirzai: “As a first generation Iranian-American and the son of an immigrant, I like to find ways to bridge international creative arenas with our own here at home in the States. As a co-founder of the WGA’s Middle Eastern Writers Committee, I’m also looking for ways to boost business from and inspired by the region. Millennials and Gen Z’ers continue to look to themselves for content creation that engages them and gives them a sense of ownership which is exactly what YouSat provides.”

He continued: “Where TikTok stops at participating in its viral successes, YouSat will carry that baton forward so we can guide this content and its creators through expanding stages of growth. I see YouSat as a way to double down on content creation that comes with a sense of community. Its very application of porting content to television broadcast is a 21st century way of reinvigorating a platform that, though definitely losing the war to streaming, still holds relevance across most major societies in the world. TV viewership can be rejuvenated if repurposed in ways that YouSat already provides with its pipeline of creation from your phone to the television screen. It’s an exciting way to refresh a still popular, and profitable, medium and I’m honored to help bring this idea to the rest of the world.”

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