| Group in your player | Arabic-language channels, with beIN Sports 1–9 inside it |
|---|---|
| What you hear | Arabic across news, drama and sport; imported films often in their original language, with Arabic on screen |
| Audio label | ara or ar, and und when the broadcaster left the track unnamed |
| Price from | $15 for one month on one screen, $69 for twelve: Tivo8k prices for every plan |
| Try first | The Tivo8k free trial, 24 hours with every Arabic channel open |
What the Arabic group holds
The group holds four kinds of television.
- News. Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, rolling coverage of the region in the formal Arabic newsrooms share.
- Family entertainment and drama. MBC 1–4, MBC Drama, Abu Dhabi TV and Dubai TV carry the serials, game shows and talk of most evenings, Ramadan series included. Rotana adds Arabic films and music.
- Imported films and series. MBC Action, beIN Movies and the OSN channels, much of it in English with Arabic subtitles.
- Sport. beIN Sports 1–9, with Arabic commentary as the norm.
National channels from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq and Saudi Arabia follow; search by name, since the group runs far longer in your player. Every other group is on the full Tivo8k channel list.
Arabic channels on Tivo8k
- beIN Sports 1–9
- MBC 1–4
- MBC Drama
- MBC Action
- Rotana
- Al Arabiya
- Dubai TV
- Al Jazeera
- Abu Dhabi TV
- OSN channels
- beIN Movies
Gulf, Nile, Levant, Maghreb: which Arabic you will hear
One language, and the channels do not all sound alike.
- The news desk. Bulletins on Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya and the national news hours use Modern Standard Arabic, followed from Rabat to Baghdad.
- The Gulf. Abu Dhabi TV, Dubai TV and the Saudi channels bring Khaleeji speech into talk shows, local drama and poetry programs.
- Egypt. The Cairo Arabic that decades of cinema and comedy made familiar far beyond the Nile.
- Lebanon and Iraq. Levantine from Beirut, Iraqi from Baghdad.
- The Maghreb. Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian channels speak the local Arabic known as Darija, and French turns up beside it, sometimes for a whole bulletin.
Dubbed drama adds a twist: Turkish serials shown on Arab channels have often been voiced in Levantine Arabic, frequently by Syrian actors. For the original cast, the same kind of serial airs first in Turkish on the channels covered by Tivo8k in Turkish.
Arabic on the screen or Arabic in the speakers
On many Arab channels an imported film keeps its English or French soundtrack, with Arabic subtitles printed into the picture by the broadcaster. Those behave quite differently from subtitles your player draws:
| What you notice | What it is | Can you change it? |
|---|---|---|
| Arabic lines that stay with subtitles set to off | Text painted into the picture by the channel | No: it cannot be hidden, moved or enlarged |
| An Arabic entry in the subtitle menu | A separate subtitle stream | Yes: on, off, and in many players a larger size |
| A second audio entry marked ara | An Arabic dub, or another commentary | Yes, from the audio menu while it plays |
In the library, films and series carry separate audio and subtitle tracks, title by title. Some, animated films especially, have an Arabic dub, shown as a second audio track or a separate entry named with the language. Plenty have none, since Arab audiences have long watched foreign films subtitled, so check the ones you want during the trial.
Setting Arabic audio and subtitles in TiviMate and IPTV Smarters Pro
Sign in with the Xtream Codes details rather than the M3U link: that route hands your player the track list of every channel and title. Menus move between versions, so treat these as directions.
- IPTV Smarters Pro. While the title plays, tap the screen or press the center button, choose the audio icon and pick the track marked ara, or the one that sounds Arabic when labels are missing. The subtitle icon beside it does the same for subtitles. Sign-in steps: our IPTV Smarters Pro guide for Tivo8k.
- TiviMate. The audio and subtitle entries sit in the playback menu, not on the main overlay. Recent versions also keep a preferred audio and subtitle language among the playback settings; if yours has it, set Arabic once instead of on every film. Login steps: the TiviMate setup page.
One snag belongs to Arabic alone: subtitles shown as unjoined letters, or with the words in reverse order. That is a player drawing right-to-left text without Arabic shaping, usually an old app on an old box, so update it or try the other player. If no subtitles appear at all, work through the checks for missing subtitles.
Football with Arabic commentary on Tivo8k
beIN Sports 1–9 is where most Arabic-speaking homes go for football, with Arabic commentary as standard. A big fixture can also appear on beIN channels in other groups and on broadcasters from other countries, so a mixed household can put the Arabic call on one screen and the English or French one on another, where the broadcasters involved carry the match. Rights decide which game airs where each season, so check the guide on the day. A few sports feeds carry a second audio track as well, listed in the audio menu like any other.
The guide shows kick-off in your own time zone, so a late match in Riyadh lands at the right hour in Toronto or Lyon, and on channels that keep an archive, Tivo8k catch-up restarts it from the first whistle. League by league, see the sports line-up.
Children, grandparents and a second screen
The list names no separate Arabic children’s group, but the MBC 1–4 range includes the network’s channel for children, and some animated films in the library carry an Arabic dub.
Grandparents on the Egyptian serial and children on an English cartoon in another room make two streams at once. A two-screen plan is $25 for a month or $119 for a year, paid once, never renewed automatically, with a 7-day money-back guarantee.
Other languages on Tivo8k
Spanish
Univision, Telemundo, Latin American networks and Spain, and how a Latino dub differs from a Castilian one.
French
TVA, Radio-Canada and RDS, the channels of France, and why a Quebec dub and a Paris dub sound different.
Turkish
TRT 1, Kanal D, Show TV and three Turkish sports channels, with the audio and subtitle menus that go with them.
South Asian languages
Hindi serials and films, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam channels, Urdu drama and cricket, with honest gaps.
European languages
ARD, ZDF, Rai 1, NPO 1 and RTP1, and why German channels sound dubbed while Dutch ones show subtitles.
All of them on one page: Languages.
Arabic on Tivo8k: questions
Does Tivo8k have Arabic channels?
Yes, a full group: MBC 1–4, MBC Drama and MBC Action, Rotana, Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, Dubai TV, Abu Dhabi TV, the OSN channels, beIN Movies and beIN Sports 1–9, plus national channels from Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. Every plan opens all of it.
Can I watch beIN Sports in Arabic on Tivo8k?
Yes. beIN Sports 1–9 sit in the Arabic group, with Arabic commentary as standard, on every plan. Which matches they show depends on each season's rights, so we never promise a fixture; when several broadcasters show one, other groups may carry English or French commentary.
Why will the Arabic subtitles not turn off on some channels?
Because the channel printed them into the picture. Many Arab broadcasters show imported films in the original language with Arabic subtitles burned into the image, and no player can remove or resize them. Subtitles you can switch off are separate streams, found far more often in the on-demand library.
Does Tivo8k have movies dubbed in Arabic?
Some, not all. Library titles carry the tracks they were supplied with, and some, animated films in particular, include an Arabic dub as a second track or a separate entry. Many have no Arabic voice at all, since foreign films usually reach Arab audiences subtitled. Check yours during the free trial.
How do I switch to Arabic audio in TiviMate?
Play the channel or film, open the playback menu, choose the audio entry and pick the track marked ara. If none appears, the feed carries one language only, or you signed in with the M3U link, which often drops the track list. Recent versions also let you set Arabic as a preferred language.
Which channels speak Egyptian or Moroccan Arabic?
The national channels from those countries, inside the Arabic group. Egyptian channels carry the Cairo speech of the best-known Arabic films and comedies; Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian channels speak Darija, with French in parts of the schedule. News nearly everywhere is read in Modern Standard Arabic, so bulletins sound much alike.