BBC Arabic online - Television live

BBC Arabic Live Stream

BBC Arabic is the Arabic-language television service of the BBC, part of the BBC World Service, broadcasting world and Middle East news in Arabic from London.

The BBC in Arabic

The grid runs on news editions, current-affairs programmes and documentaries covering the Middle East and the world, produced to the BBC's editorial standards. The service's history goes back to the Arabic radio broadcasts that began in 1938; the television channel carries the same journalism on screen.

Arabic broadcasting since 1938

The BBC's Arabic radio service was one of the first foreign-language broadcasts the corporation established, and it became a reference for news in the region during the Second World War and the decades that followed. The television channel, launched in 2008, extended that reputation to a medium the region's own broadcasters already dominated.

A crowded Arabic news market

Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, Sky News Arabia and several state services compete for the same viewers, and the BBC's Arabic output positions itself on reporting from the region rather than on opinion. Its correspondents work across the Arab world, covering politics, conflict and society.

Funding and editorial independence

The World Service is funded by the British government through the licence fee settlement rather than by advertising, which is what allows a service of this kind to operate without commercial pressure in a market where most competitors are owned by states or billionaires.

BBC Arabic Watch Live Streaming now online