How do audiences in the Middle East and North Africa respond to the dramatic expansion of content offered with the advent of online video? Rapid internet adoption in the region signifies the latest expansion of content menus available to audiences since television. In this article, we determine who—as a consequence of this expansion—diversifies their content preferences online and on traditional television, and who maintains the same preferences, regardless of platform. To answer these questions, this study applies Everett Rogers' diffusion of innovations theory, using data from a large-scale survey on media use in the Middle East and North Africa. The results reveal: In the Middle East and North Africa in 2016, classic characteristics of innovators and early adopters are no longer significant predictors that one will be receptive to different genres of content online versus on television. Instead, more significant predictors are the television landscape in one’s country, being interested in new content of all kinds, and the characteristics of the genres themselves.
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