Why Are Brands from the Middle East Missing from Licensing Expo?

Another edition of Licensing Expo in Las Vegas wrapped this week. Three days of back-to-back meetings, floor walks, handshakes, and conversations with some of the most experienced brand builders and licensing professionals in the world. I attend every year, and every year I come back with a clearer picture of where this industry is heading.

This year, I also came back with a question I could not stop asking myself.

I walked an entire floor packed with global entertainment brands, lifestyle IP, character franchises, and content powerhouses. Brands from North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. But not a single exhibiting brand from the Middle East. That absence tells a story. And it is a story worth examining honestly.

The Gap Is Real. So Is the Opportunity.

The Middle East has things that the global licensing industry quietly craves: fresh stories, loyal audiences, rich cultural identity, and media companies growing faster than almost anywhere else in the world. What has been missing is not the content or the ambition. It is the industry infrastructure, the licensing expertise, and the international relationships needed to convert regional popularity into a global consumer products program.

Brands from the Arab world have built massive audiences. They just have not yet built the licensing programs to match.

That gap is where I work. And closing it is what drives me.

My goal is to see brands from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Morocco, and across the wider Arab world standing at Licensing Expo and Brand Licensing Europe not as visitors but as exhibitors, dealmakers, and serious global IP owners. The region has been importing global brands for decades. It is time to start exporting its own.

Osratouna TV: A First Proof of What Is Possible

Which brings me to what I am proud to share this week. BBM Licensing has signed an exclusive partnership with Osratouna TV to develop and manage a global licensing program for one of the most compelling brands I have encountered in Arabic children's entertainment.

If you are not familiar with Osratouna TV, the numbers speak for themselves: 20 billion views worldwide. 21 million subscribers. The number one Arabic kids' channel on the planet. Built entirely through organic growth.

At the heart of the brand is Thaloob, their flagship character, a figure that millions of children across the GCC, North Africa, and the Arabic-speaking diaspora have grown up watching and loving. The kind of character children ask for by name.

Under our agreement, BBM Licensing will represent Osratouna TV's full character portfolio internationally, building partnerships across toys and plush, publishing, apparel, bedtime products, lifestyle accessories, and immersive experiences.

We introduced the program to the market at Licensing Expo this week, and the response from the industry confirmed what I already believed.

There is genuine appetite for an Arabic IP with this kind of scale, this depth of audience loyalty, and a character universe that translates naturally into consumer products. The global market has been waiting for exactly this kind of brand, it just did not know where to find it.

A Commitment, Not Just a Goal

Attending Licensing Expo is part of how I stay connected to where this industry is moving. The conversations here do not happen on a screen. This is where market intelligence is gathered, where trust is built face to face, and where you learn what retail partners and licensees are genuinely looking for.

What I heard this week reinforced something I intend to act on with everything I have. The window for Middle Eastern brands on the global stage is not approaching. It is open right now.

So here is my commitment: BBM Licensing will continue building the bridge between the Arab world's most promising brands and the global licensing industry. That means identifying the right brands, structuring licensing programs that can travel internationally, and showing up at every major industry platform until Middle Eastern IP owners are a visible and respected presence at these events.

The Osratouna TV partnership is the first public step in that direction. It will not be the last.

The region has world-class stories to tell. My job is to make sure the world gets to experience them on retail shelves, in living rooms, and in toy boxes from London to Los Angeles.

Follow the journey on amerbitar.com and connect on LinkedIn.