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What's Streaming in the United Arab Emirates?

  • Writer: Rishad A.R
    Rishad A.R
  • May 27, 2020
  • 8 min read

Keyword: OTT Services in UAE, Streaming Services in UAE

Keyword MSV: 1 Million (Source: Google Keyword Planner)

Author: Rishad A Rasheed

Publish Date: 28-May-2020

What the United Arab Emirates is Streaming? More than a dozen streaming choices gets analyzed in this article.

UAE is a country with one of the highest internet penetration rate across the world (98.4%) thus anything Digital would be much relevant for the people living in this country. The trend has been no different for streaming services as well, as majority of the revenues has been from UAE.


This article focuses on the video streaming & Live TV services available in the country. It may give its readers insights on the various options available, its features and the cost along with some interesting facts and figures.


It would be a surprise for many to know that Netflix was founded in 1997/98 offering subscription based DVD by mail services. Only in 2007, Netflix started its streaming service in the US. House of Cards was one of the first Netflix Originals to be screened. In 2016, Netflix goes global and within a span of 1 year, it crosses 100 Mn Subscriber mark. As of 2020, Netflix has around 150 Mn subscribers served with about 850+ Original titles.


Netflix launched in UAE in January, 2016 with a 1 month free trial. But it was disappointing for the fans to know that many of the popular titles including "The office" and "House of Cards" were missing from its UAE catalogue. It offers a Monthly subscription plan ranging from AED 29/month.

Prime Video (www.primevideo.com)

Amazon launched its video streaming service for its Prime Members. When it was first launched in the US, it was called Amazon Unbox Video which was later renamed as Amazon Video on Demand. It went through atleast 4 name changes before it was branded as Prime Video in 2018.

As of January 2020, Amazon Prime Video has over 150 Million subscribers from over 200 countries.

Amazon launched its video streaming service in the UAE only in 2019 following the popular acquisition of souq.com by Amazon. Like Netflix, Prime also offered its users a 30 days free trial with a monthly subscription fee of only AED 16. It also partnered with du to instantly reach out to the UAE households.


OSN Streaming (www.stream.osn.com)

Looks like OSN has learned its lessons from WAVO, their 2017 initiative to bring LIVE TV and Streaming services to the country. OSN launched it, or relaunched the revamped and rebranded version of WAVO according to me in 2020 at a time when the world chose to stay home due to the COVID crisis, by roping in some big names that includes HBO and Disney. Their library is rich in contents which includes GOT and Chernobyl which are among the most watched television series across the world.

The previous WAVO streaming app will disappear and be replaced by a new OSN app.

OSN included LIVE TV as well, which makes it a complete package for their customers thus giving a competitive edge over their rivals, Netflix and Prime. The subscription packs are categorized into 2. Streaming only and Streaming + LIVE TV. The streaming only option is sold at AED 35/month & AED 199/Year while the combo is offered at AED 298/Year. OSN offers upto 7 day free trial for its customers.


MBC, the first private free-to-air satellite broadcasting company in the Arab World launched Shahid in 2014 as a Smart TV app exclusively for Samsung in the MENA region. It was MENA's first VOD service to provide series, programs, cartoons and documentaries from a selection of MBC and non-MBC channels. 5 years later, Shahid got a complete revamp and was relaunched in style with Burj Khalifa illuminating their new slogan "It’s Our Time".

The ex HULU SVP Johannes Larcher is leading the show at Shahid who also served as CEO and co-founder of SubVRsive, an Emmy-nominated VR and AR Content Production start-up funded by WPP

Shahid would be a perfect rival for OSN especially with its strong Arabic content and TV channels. Shahid is now offered in a monthly and annual subscription packs with a 30 days free trial. The monthly pack is offered at AED 19.99 while the annual pack is priced at AED 169.99.


YouTube Premium (www.youtube.com/premium)

You Tube is still undeniably the worlds most favorite video streaming service across the world with its sheer variety of contents, free access and personalized recommendations. You Tube launched its premium version in the UAE towards the end of 2019 which allows ad free access to You Tubes content library. Its a single subscription for You Tube and You Tube Music which would eliminate the never ending ads on You Tube. Also the subscription would allow its users to download the videos and music for offline streaming.

YouTube Premium comes with background play, which enables users to listen to audio even if they exit from the app.

It comes with a 1 month free trial while there are other offers which extends the free trial up to 4 months. The subscription is priced at AED 23.99/month while the other available options are a family pack for upto 5 accounts at AED 35.99/month or a subsidized student account at AED 13.99/month.


Zee5, the Digital platform of Zee Entertainment India was first launched on the Valentines day of 2018 in India with contents from 12 different Indian languages. By end of 2018, the service was rolled out to more than 190 countries. Zee5 was offered as a SVOD service in the UK and US while it was offered on a Freemium model in the MENA region with a subscription fees.


Zee5 offers more than 100,000 hours of content library across 17 languages. Due to the popularity of Indian contents in the MENA region, it is offered with Arabic subtitles on the platform. The subscription packs starts with a free trial of 30 days which then can be upgraded to paid version starting from AED 5.99/Week.

Zee5 partnered with the UAE-based digital retail giant, the Eurostar Group to distribute its subscription packs through Eurostar and its partner outlets across GCC.

STARZ PLAY (Playco Entertainment LLC), a division of Starz (Lionsgate Company); another Dubai based tech company launched in 2015 offering SVOD service in the region.

It is live in 19 countries in the MENA region with contents from Fox, Warner Bros, Lionsgate, Sony and so on. Vikings and Walking Dead are some of the most popular shows on STARZ PLAY.

STARZPLAY, the leading subscription video on demand (SVOD) service, has entered into a partnership with Academy Award-winning media and entertainment company, Image Nation Abu Dhabi, to create its first original content series.

The service is offered at AED 40/Month with a 7 days free trial. StarzPlay also offers users to pay with their mobile through Telco partnerships in the region. StarzPlay joined hands with Sharaf DG, a leading electronics retail chain in the country to offer their service for free to DG members, which is a loyalty programme for Sharaf DG customers.


Apple forayed into the UAE market with its premium TV service only towards the end of 2019. Apple TV+ is offered in more than 100 countries at present, a late entrant but armed with its own original content and backing of big names, like Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Steve Carell, Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg. Apple has a lot of catching up to do before they can be considered as a serious competition to Netflix and Prime but I believe its work very well in progress as they have announced atleast 8 original series to be screened in near future.


Unlike the other Apple products, Apple TV+ is priced considerably lower at AED 19.99/month with 7 days free trial.

Free annual subscription to Apple TV+ is offered with the purchase of select Apple devices.

beIN Connect was launched in 2014 allowing users to watch live and on-demand video content. Their contents comprises of sports, movies, and TV shows. beIN is popular for the rights they own for various football leagues that includes Champions league, Football World Cup, English Premier League, La Liga and so on.

Al Jazeera has acquired the rights to broadcast the 2022 World Cups across the Middle East and North Africa region.

beIN Connect is offered in 3 packs, a daily pass for $4, a monthly pass for $10 and an annual pass (14 months) for $100.


With Etisalat’s recent launch of a brand-new OTT video service SwitchTV, UAE subscribers can enjoy free premium content such as movies, live TV and on demand movies. The content line-up covers Arabic, Western and subcontinent content for Indians and expatriates from Asia with more expected to be added in the future.

Etisalat subscribers accessing SwitchTV will enjoy data-free streaming on their mobile devices. Also the SwitchTV app is made available in the latest Huawei App Gallery but it is yet to be made available for TV.

The service offers 10,000 hours of premium movies and TV shows from StarzPlay, MBC, Eros Now, Fox, Walt Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Sony, BBC, and many more. The subscription is offered for free while the paid version with added benefits are available from AED 2.99/day.


YuppTV is a subscription service for South Asian content including live television and movies. It was launched in UAE in 2017 which offers 300+ Indian TV channels and more than 8,000 hours of Bollywood and South Indian movie contents on subscription.

YuppTV was majorly focusing on its Telco partnerships to expand in the region including UAE. They tried to widen the reach by launching their own set top boxes in partnership with retail giants like Carrefour and Lulu in UAE

YuppTV offers subscription packs starting from AED 19.99/Month upto AED 299.99/Year. It also offers a free trial upto 14 days where the users get access to limited channels and contents.


viu was launched in UAE in 2017 after its success in the Asian markets. viu offers a collection that is dedicated for the Korean drama enthusiasts along with contents from India and the Arab world that includes music videos.

viu sponsored several concerts in Dubai to promote their service that includes popular bollywood names like Shaan, KK, Aatif Aslam and Sunidhi Chouhan

Subscribers can access the premium contents of viu for AED 30/Month after a 1 month free trial.


Eros Now (www.erosnow.com/)

Eros Now is Eros International Plc’s On-Demand South Asian Entertainment Video Service accessible worldwide. It was first launched in UAE in 2018 through a partnership with Etisalat's E-Vision. in January 2020, the company also partnered with Eurostar to distribute its subscription across the GCC.


Eros Now becomes the first Indian player to sign a deal with Apple for making their content available for Apple TV+ users in multiple countries including UAE.

The service is yet to pick up its popularity in the country against the likes of Zee5 and Prime but it has all the potential to become a hit with their rich Indian content library. The subscriptions packs are made available starting from AED 11.99/Month.


Awaan is the free VOD services offered by Dubai TV which was launched in 2016 offering viewers access to Arabic TV content from different broadcasters. The Lebanon based company Mangomolo built the platform for Awaan and the service is offered for free to its users.

Awaan is the first video platform to be made available on Apple Smartwatch

AD TV (www.adtv.ae)

Abu Dhabi TV offers its viewers, a free streaming service of their content catalogue and the same is accessible on mobile apps available on Play Store and App Store including Apple TV.

The table below allows one to understand the Annual Subscription cost to each of the discussed streaming service available in UAE. While beIN subscription accounts for more than 50% of the total cost, if its removed from the list, then an individual has to spend a maximum of AED 3976 to get premium subscription to all the remaining 14 services.

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1 Comment

favas371
May 27, 2020

Very informative for current situation with digital platforms 👍👍👍

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