Watching Sport in the UAE and the Gulf
The Gulf is the clearest illustration anywhere of how sports rights actually work. Rather than selling the Premier League country by country, the rights were sold once, for a whole region of 24 countries, to a single broadcaster. So there is no local free alternative to fall back on for top-flight football — which makes the genuinely free channels here more interesting than they look, and makes the ones people still recommend worth correcting.
Two corrections, and one thing we refuse to guess at.
SSC no longer exists. The Saudi Sports Company closed on
5 October 2025 after losing the rights to Saudi football, which passed to
Thmanyah and then to MBC Group. Any guide still listing SSC as a free-to-air
option is out of date. And we are not publishing a price for beIN
Sports or TOD: beIN's own packages page loads its
prices in the browser rather than in the page, so our checks came back with
column headers and no numbers, and TOD's site blocked us entirely. We would
rather say that than quote a reseller.
What you can watch free in the Gulf
The free names in this region are Dubai Sports, AD Sports and Alkass. Two caveats: these are free-to-air satellite channels in their own markets, so you need a dish pointed at the right satellite, and we could not independently verify the encryption status of every stream.
| Channel | What it carries | How to get it |
|---|---|---|
| Abu Dhabi Sports (AD Sports 1 and 2) | Live Abu Dhabi Media channels including Abu Dhabi Sports, via a section inside the STARZPLAY app that ADMN describes as a free viewing experience, with a STARZPLAY page titled "Watch Abu Dhabi Sports 1 For Free" | Free inside the STARZPLAY app. The standalone ADtv app was shut down on 30 November 2025 and its channels moved there |
| Dubai Sports 1, 2 and 3 | Local football and a broad football portfolio. The channel's site lists the Premier League, LaLiga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, the Champions League and AFC competitions, without saying which of it is live rather than magazine output | Free-to-air satellite according to third-party channel listings. The channel itself does not state whether each item is free or paid, so we treat its live-rights position as unverified |
| Alkass (Qatar) | Qatar Stars League, Gulf Cup and horse racing | Streams on shoof.alkass.net with no subscription described and no account required. Whether every stream is free is unconfirmed |
| Thmanyah 1, 2 and 3 | Saudi Pro League. A secondary source reports a free tier carrying live matches up to 720p with no subscription, plus free-to-air satellite channels | Free-to-air satellite on Arabsat Badr 8. Thmanyah says live Saudi matches are restricted outside Saudi Arabia |
A note on satellite. The free-to-air channels above sit on Nilesat at 7°W and on Badr 8 at 26°E, depending on the channel. The frequency listings we used are third-party and are not an independent encryption test, so confirm before you buy or re-aim any equipment.
The main services, and what they cost
| Service | Carries | Price |
|---|---|---|
| beIN Sports | The dominant pay sports broadcaster across MENA. Premier League in full, plus Champions League and Europa League, LaLiga, Serie A, Ligue 1, NBA and EuroLeague, Formula 1, WTA tennis and NFL. The streaming app beIN CONNECT is included free with a satellite subscription | Not published where we could read it. beIN's own packages page states that prices exclude taxes and that local currency prices vary with the exchange rate. No free trial is mentioned on it |
| TOD | beIN's streaming service, launched in 2022: beIN's channels and live sport in up to 4K | Not verified — the site refused our checks, so we have no confirmed price, country list or trial |
| DAZN | The global tier only, in English: Saudi Pro League, UAE Division 1, NFL Game Pass, NHL.tv, LIV Golf, WTA, Riyadh Season boxing, FIFA+ and college sport. No local league depth beyond that | Not published on the storefront |
| Thmanyah | Saudi Pro League, plus entertainment | A secondary source reports a free tier carrying live matches up to 720p with no subscription, plus Basic at SAR 35/month and Premium at SAR 70/month and a seven-day trial on the annual Premium plan only. We could not verify any of that on Thmanyah's own site |
| STARZPLAY (ADMN section) | Abu Dhabi's channels, including Abu Dhabi Sports, live and free | Free |
Who shows what
| Competition | Where it is |
|---|---|
| Premier League | beIN Sports, exclusively and live, across 24 MENA countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt and Morocco, with all 380 matches in Arabic and English, to the end of 2027/28. TOD carries every match as well |
| Champions League, LaLiga, Serie A, Ligue 1 | beIN Sports, per its published portfolio. We treat the detailed list as needing verification |
| NBA and EuroLeague | beIN Sports, exclusively in MENA per the same portfolio |
| Formula 1 | beIN Sports across MENA and Turkey, reported through 2033 |
| Saudi Pro League | Thmanyah holds MENA exclusive rights including free-to-air satellite, reported through the 2030-31 season. The Saudi league's own broadcaster page lists Thmanyah as the only available broadcaster |
| UAE domestic football | AD Sports, and the UAE Division 1 also appears on DAZN's global tier |
One piece of history explains some local oddities. beIN's signal was blocked in Saudi Arabia from 2018 and its licence there was revoked in 2020; the ban was reported lifted in October 2021, and the UAE restricted beIN briefly in 2017. If you are told beIN "does not work" somewhere in the region, that dispute is usually the reason. Check locally rather than relying on either the old reporting or the channel's own coverage map.
The cheapest legal routes
- The free tier is real here. Abu Dhabi Sports streams live and free inside the ADMN section of the STARZPLAY app — the clearest genuinely free legal sports stream we found in the region.
- Watching from Saudi Arabia: Thmanyah is reported to carry the Saudi Pro League on a free tier up to 720p with no subscription, and its three satellite channels are free-to-air in the country. We could not verify the tiers on Thmanyah's own site, and Thmanyah says live Saudi matches are restricted outside Saudi Arabia.
- Qatar: Alkass on shoof.alkass.net appears free and needs no account. We could not confirm that for every stream.
- Premier League: beIN Sports or TOD, and there is no free route at all. Because beIN localises its prices and excludes tax, the number you pay is the one you see in your own country's checkout — not any figure quoted on a third-party site.
- Do not buy from a reseller. We found a site presenting itself as the official Saudi beIN store. It is not on a beIN domain and we could not verify it, so we will not repeat its prices.
Is beIN Sports free in the UAE?
No. beIN is a pay service. The streaming app beIN CONNECT is included as a benefit of a satellite subscription rather than sold as a free product, and beIN's packages page mentions no free trial. We could not read a price from that page at all, because it loads prices in the browser.
What happened to SSC?
SSC closed on 5 October 2025. It lost the rights to Saudi football in June 2025, which passed to Thmanyah and then to MBC Group, and the channels went off air. Guides still listing SSC as a free free-to-air sports option are out of date.
Which sports channels are genuinely free in the Gulf?
Dubai Sports, AD Sports and Alkass are the free-to-air names, and Abu Dhabi Sports streams live and free in the ADMN section of the STARZPLAY app. Thmanyah's satellite channels and, per a secondary source, its free tier cover the Saudi Pro League. We could not independently verify the free status of every stream on each of these, so treat the satellite ones as needing a local check.
Where can I watch the Premier League in the Gulf?
beIN Sports holds exclusive live MENA rights to the end of the 2027/28 season, covering all 380 matches in Arabic and English across 24 countries, and TOD carries every match too. Both are paid.
Why will you not tell me the price of beIN or TOD?
Because we could not read it from either company. beIN's packages page renders its prices in the browser, so the served page contains column headings and no figures, and TOD's site blocked our checks. Quoting a reseller or an aggregator instead would mean publishing a number we cannot stand behind, and beIN prices vary by country and exclude tax.
Is DAZN a full service in the UAE?
No. The UAE storefront is English-language and carries the global tier: Saudi Pro League, UAE Division 1, NFL Game Pass, NHL.tv, LIV Golf, WTA, Riyadh Season boxing and college sport. There is no local league package beyond that.
Where to go next
Free live streams Premier League coverage worldwide DAZN by country Watching sport in South Africa