Best Streaming Services in the UAE 2026: OSN+ Quietly Beats Netflix at Its Own Game

There are eight streaming services in the UAE in 2026. Eight. That's eight separate apps, eight separate bills, eight separate passwords you've written on a Post-it note stuck to the back of your TV, and roughly zero people in the country who can tell you which one has Schitt's Creek without checking.

So how do you decide which one to get if you only want one? That's where we come in, and right now, the best streaming service in the UAE right now is OSN+ at AED 48.99/month — not because it does everything, but because the HBO/Max library alone contains more television worth watching than most people will finish in a calendar year.

If budget is the priority, STARZPLAY Plus at AED 9.99/month is the cheapest thing with a play button. However, if you shop on Amazon.ae more than twice a month, Prime Video at AED 16/month pays for itself in shipping alone. And if you're on a du Home plan and you're not taking the free Disney+ bundle, you are leaving almost AED 600 a year on the table for reasons that are, frankly, between you and your du bill.

Why trust this guide

We subscribe to every service on this list. All of them. Simultaneously. We streamed across every platform from a du fibre connection in Dubai to an e& fibre connection in Abu Dhabi, and even a 5G Home Wireless connection in Sharjah. We measured app stability, 4K delivery, Arabic subtitle quality, payment reliability through UAE-issued cards, and how many screens each service actually lets you use at 8 PM when everyone in the household decides to watch something different.

Best streaming services in the UAE 2026 — our top picks

Best overall: OSN+

OSN+ Standard costs AED 48.99/month. OSN+ Premium costs AED 64.99/month, or AED 48.74/month if you pay annually — and you should pay annually, because the only thing more expensive than streaming in the UAE is streaming in the UAE on a monthly plan.

The HBO/Max catalogue is the reason OSN+ wins this. The Last of Us, House of the Dragon, Succession, and the entire Game of Thrones universe, including A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. The Warner Bros. theatrical pipeline. Sky originals. And Schitt's Creek, which lives on OSN+ and not Netflix in this region, is the kind of information that could save a marriage.

Pay the annual rate, take the 4K Premium, and move on.

Cheapest: STARZPLAY Plus

STARZPLAY Plus at AED 9.99/month is the cheapest streaming service in the UAE by a margin wide enough to be suspicious. What do you get for ten dirhams besides a Shawarma meal? Power. Outlander. A rotating selection of theatrical titles that arrived sometime after their cinema run and before anyone remembered to promote them.

You do not get live sport — that's behind the AED 44.99/month STARZPLAY MAX tier, which is a completely different product wearing the same brand name for reasons that are presumably clear to someone at STARZPLAY.

If your streaming budget is "as close to zero as legally possible," this is it.

Best bundled value: Prime Video

Prime Video is AED 16/month, or AED 140/year if you commit, which works out to AED 11.67/month- the kind of number Amazon puts on things when they want you to feel like you're getting away with something. And you are getting away with something because that AED 140 also includes free Amazon.ae shipping, which, on its own, pays for the subscription if you order more than two things a month — and I'm not judging — you probably do.

The library includes The Boys, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the new God of War series, and a recently announced Ultra 4K tier that boosts picture quality for those who care. Best for anyone who already has the Amazon.ae app on their phone, which is everyone.

Best for Arabic content: Shahid VIP

Shahid VIP at AED 44.99/month is the only service on this list where Arabic content is the main event and not a sidebar. The MBC library. The Ramadan slate — the real one, not the four shows Netflix licenses and puts in a row with a crescent moon icon. Deep Khaleeji and Egyptian back-catalogues.

If your household includes anyone whose first language is Arabic, or anyone who watches Ramadan drama with the volume up and the subtitles off, Shahid plus one English service is a better combination than Netflix alone.

If you travel outside the region, read our guide to using Shahid outside the Middle East, because this is one of those services that stops working the moment your plane lands somewhere they don't serve a shawarma.

Best for originals: Netflix

Netflix in the UAE now costs between AED 35/month and AED 71/month, depending on which tier you choose, which is a price range wide enough to suggest that even Netflix isn't sure what Netflix is worth.

Here's what it's worth: Stranger Things. Squid Game. Wednesday. The Knives Out sequels. The back catalogue of stand-up specials that you'll watch at 1 AM when you can't sleep. These are exclusive to Netflix, and there is no legal way to watch them on any other service in the UAE — a fact Netflix is aware of, which is how they arrived at AED 71 for the Premium tier.

Netflix has also leaned into the region hard: its 2026 Arabic slate brings Dubai Bling back, making it the most aggressive Arabic-content investor among the English-first platforms. But at AED 71 a month — after the latest price increase — the correct strategy is to subscribe for the three months a year when your shows are airing and cancel the rest. Netflix knows this. They're counting on you forgetting to cancel.

Best for prestige: Apple TV+

Apple TV+ costs AED 27.99/month, making it the cheapest premium service on this list — cheaper than Netflix, OSN+, and Shahid. It also has the smallest catalogue on this list, by a significant margin. And yet: Plur1bus. Severance. Shrinking. Ted Lasso. Silo. Pachinko. The Morning Show. For All Mankind Season 5. Apple has not greenlit a show that wasn't aiming for an award.

The first month is free; it comes bundled with any Apple device, and Apple Music subscribers can fold it into Apple One for less. At AED 27.99, Apple TV+ is the service you add second and forget you're paying for, because every time you open it, there's something worth watching, and you never think about the bill. That's a sentence Apple would put on a billboard, and it's also true.

Best free-with-telco: Disney+ via du

Disney+ costs AED 49.99/month if you subscribe directly, which is genuinely one of the more absurd prices in the UAE streaming market, because du gives it away for free. Eligible du Home plans include 12 months of Disney+ at no additional charge. Twelve months. Of a service that costs AED 49.99/month. That's AED 600 in free streaming, which is more than the cost of the du plan itself in some configurations, which means du is effectively paying you to be a du customer, which is a business model I do not fully understand but am happy to exploit.

Daredevil: Born Again and Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord are exclusive to Disney+ in the UAE.

Best for live sport: STARZPLAY MAX and TOD

STARZPLAY MAX at AED 44.99/month is the STARZPLAY tier that includes live sports — specifically UFC pay-per-view.

TOD, owned by beIN, charges USD 18/month for HD (around AED 66) and USD 30/month for 4K (around AED 110), and is the only service in the UAE that offers the Premier League, Champions League, and Formula 1 under one roof. Buy TOD only if live football or F1 is non-negotiable.

Dubai+ launched as a local family-safe alternative to everything else on this list. It's too new to recommend, too interesting to ignore, and priced at a level we haven't confirmed yet — so we'll revisit it when there's something to revisit.

Full comparison table — UAE streaming services 2026

Prices verified with each service in April 2026. All include 5% VAT where billed directly. Telco-bundled invoices may itemise VAT separately. TOD bills in USD; AED figures are approximate.

What to look for when choosing

Check your telco plan before you buy anything. Du and e& bundle Disney+, OSN+ and STARZPLAY into Home plans at zero or near-zero marginal cost. Half the people reading this are already paying for a streaming service they don't know they have.

Password sharing is not what it used to be. Netflix and Disney+ both enforce household crackdowns. OSN+ and Apple TV+ are more relaxed for now, in the way companies are right before they stop being relaxed about things.

Not all services travel. OSN+, Shahid, and STARZPLAY work across the GCC. Netflix region-locks the moment you land in another country — not your account, your catalogue. Apple TV+ is the most travel-friendly of the global services, which is either a feature or an admission that their library is the same everywhere because there isn't enough of it to vary.

Gift cards exist. Noon.com and Sharaf DG sell prepaid cards for Netflix, Apple, and OSN+ in AED. Useful if you want to avoid auto-renewal, which is another way of saying useful if you know yourself.

VAT is usually included. Direct billing shows the VAT-inclusive AED price. Telco-bundled invoices sometimes add 5% as a separate line, which is the same amount presented in a way designed to make you feel differently about it.

Where to subscribe

• OSN+: osnplus.com, or bundled with e& Home plans. Gift cards at Sharaf DG and Virgin Megastore UAE.
• Prime Video: primevideo.com. Comes free with an eligible Amazon.ae Prime memberships.
• Shahid VIP: shahid.mbc.net, or bundled with du and e& Home plans. Prepaid cards at Carrefour and Lulu.
• Netflix: netflix.com. Gift cards at Noon.com, Sharaf DG and Virgin Megastore.
• Apple TV+: via the Apple TV app. Free month with any Apple device from iStyle UAE, Sharaf DG, or Jumbo Electronics. Part of Apple One.
• Disney+: disneyplus.com, or — and I cannot stress this enough — 12 months free with eligible du Home plans.
• STARZPLAY: starzplay.com, or bundled with e& and du Home plans.
• TOD: tod.tv. Sports tier required for Premier League, UEFA and F1.

Frequently asked questions

Which streaming service is best in the UAE?

OSN+ is the best streaming service in the UAE for most households in 2026. The HBO/Max catalogue — The Last of Us, House of the Dragon, Succession, the full Game of Thrones universe — outweighs what any other single service offers on a week-to-week basis. OSN+ Premium on the annual plan works out to AED 48.74/month, which is cheaper than Netflix Premium at AED 71 and comes with a deeper must-watch library.

Who are the big 3 streaming services in the UAE?

The big three in the UAE are OSN+ (HBO/Max library, Warner Bros. pipeline), Netflix (exclusive originals, largest global catalogue), and Shahid VIP (Arabic-language originals, MBC/Ramadan content). Disney+ and Apple TV+ round out the top five, but the big three are the ones most UAE households subscribe to in some combination.

What are the top 5 streaming services in the UAE?

In order: OSN+ (best overall), Prime Video (best value), Shahid VIP (best for Arabic), Netflix (best for originals), and Apple TV+ (best for prestige). Disney+ via du's free bundle is effectively a sixth service most households end up with whether they intended to or not.

Is OSN+ better than Netflix in the UAE?

For most households, yes. OSN+ Standard at AED 48.99/month carries the entire HBO/Max catalogue, the Warner Bros. pipeline, and exclusives like Schitt's Creek that Netflix UAE doesn't have. Netflix Premium at AED 71/month wins for its own originals — Stranger Things, Wednesday, Squid Game — but the week-to-week must-watch volume favours OSN+ at a lower price point.

How much does Netflix cost in the UAE in 2026?

Netflix in the UAE ranges from AED 35/month for the Basic tier to AED 71/month for Premium 4K, following the most recent price increase. Those are the two numbers that matter. Everything in between is Netflix hoping you'll pick the middle option, which is how pricing works.

Can I get Disney+ free in the UAE?

Yes. Du offers 12 months of Disney+ free with eligible Home Wireless and fibre plans. Disney+ direct costs AED 49.99/month, so the du bundle saves almost AED 600 over a year. The promotion applies to both new and existing du customers on qualifying plans.

What is the cheapest streaming service in the UAE?

STARZPLAY Plus at AED 9.99/month. Prime Video is next at AED 16/month, or AED 11.67/month effective on the annual plan. Apple TV+ at AED 27.99/month is the cheapest service that most people would consider "premium." Below AED 10/month, STARZPLAY Plus is the only legitimate option.

Which streaming service has live sports in the UAE?

TOD (owned by beIN) has the Premier League, Champions League and Formula 1 — USD 18/month for HD, USD 30/month for 4K. STARZPLAY MAX at AED 44.99/month covers UFC pay-per-view. The cheaper STARZPLAY Plus tier at AED 9.99 does not include sport, which is the kind of detail that only becomes apparent when you're three minutes from kickoff. The ICC T20 World Cup 2026 in the UAE will stream via regional rights-holders to be confirmed.

Can I watch streaming services across the GCC?

OSN+, Shahid VIP and STARZPLAY work across all six GCC countries with one subscription. Netflix and Disney+ enforce regional content libraries — your account works, but the catalogue changes the moment you cross the border. Apple TV+ has the smallest geographic gap, mostly because the library is the same everywhere.

The verdict

OSN+ is the best streaming service in the UAE in 2026. The HBO/Max library, the Warner Bros. pipeline, and the fact that it works identically across every GCC country deliver more television worth watching per dirham than anything else on the market. The annual Premium plan at AED 48.74/month is the benchmark against which to compare everything else.

The realistic two-service combination for a typical UAE household is OSN+ Premium (annual) plus Shahid VIP at a combined AED 93.73/month. That covers premium English drama, Hollywood theatrical, and the entire MBC and Ramadan slate — without paying for Netflix, which, at AED 71/month for Premium, has confused "being first" with "being necessary."

If you want the cheapest possible streaming bill: STARZPLAY Plus at AED 9.99, plus the du Disney+ bundle. Total: AED 9.99/month. If you want the best value with shipping thrown in: Prime Video at AED 140/year. If you want six perfect shows instead of six hundred mediocre ones: Apple TV+ at AED 27.99. And if you want Netflix, subscribe for the months your shows are on, cancel for the months they aren't, and stop feeling guilty about it — they raised the price twice this year, and they're going to be fine.

For the full head-to-head, read our Netflix vs Prime Video UAE breakdown. For everything else streaming in the UAE, browse the entertainment section.

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