Arabic Video Production and Subtitling in Dubai
Arabic usually appears on a production plan as one row with one number against it, somewhere near the end, next to subtitles. It is four decisions taken at four different points, and two of them have to happen before anyone is cast.
This guide covers where Arabic is legally required rather than preferred in Dubai, the split between the written register and the spoken one, what right-to-left does to layout and to the picture cut, the subtitle specifications that constrain an edit, and the three structures a bilingual film can be delivered in. Written for the marketing director who signs off casting and the launch date.
Two audiences, one city. English carries a large share of the residents, Arabic carries the national audience, the region, and the requirement.
The one line to hold onto
Arabic on screen and Arabic on the soundtrack are separate decisions. The written layer runs on Modern Standard Arabic. The spoken layer is a dialect choice, and for a Dubai audience that usually means Emirati or Khaleeji.
Arabic video production in Dubai is two decisions, not one translation
Watch out
This article covers how Arabic and bilingual video work in Dubai, for the person planning a production. It is not legal advice. Requirements change, so confirm them with the permitting authority or qualified counsel before a placement is booked.
The written layer, meaning subtitles, lower thirds and end cards, runs on Modern Standard Arabic. The spoken layer, meaning voiceover and anyone talking on camera, is a dialect choice. Those are different questions with different answers, and a film that swaps them lands as either a news bulletin with a beach in it or an unserious one.
There is a second reason to settle this early. In some placements Arabic is not a preference. Dubai's advertising decree requires it as the main language of an advertisement, and the federal consumer-protection regime requires Arabic in advertising, contracts, e-commerce information and invoices, with other languages permitted alongside rather than instead.
The third reason is the one that catches teams out. Broken Arabic on screen still looks like text to anyone who does not read Arabic. It passes internal approval, and it fails in public.
That is the case for treating Arabic as a production decision made at brief stage rather than a translation task at the end, which is where casting, script length and the edit can still absorb it.
Where Arabic is required rather than preferred
The Dubai advertising decree
Decree No. 6 of 2020 regulating advertisements in the Emirate of Dubai is the local instrument. Article 11(7) requires use of the Arabic language in the advertisement, and permits any foreign language beside Arabic provided that Arabic is the main language.
Article 4(a) is what gives that force. No person may display an advertisement in any advertising space in the emirate, using an advertising medium, without first obtaining a permit. The language rule is enforced at the point the permit is reviewed. Article 11(6) adds the content requirement, that an advertisement complies with Islamic Sharia and does not conflict with public order or public morals.
Article 17(a) sets the penalty at not less than AED 1,000 and not more than AED 15,000, doubled for a repeat within one year up to a cap of AED 30,000. The fine is not the problem. The rejected permit and the missed launch date are.
The federal consumer-protection obligation
The heavier instrument is federal. Under Federal Law No. 15 of 2020 on Consumer Protection with Cabinet Decision No. 66 of 2023 issuing its executive regulations, data, advertising, contracts, information displayed by e-commerce providers and invoices must be in Arabic, with other languages permitted in addition to Arabic rather than instead of it. The law firms K&L Gates and Pinsent Masons both set that out, and the regulations came into force on 14 October 2023.
The penalties are a different order of magnitude from the advertising decree. Chambers and Partners reports a schedule of 46 financial penalties running from AED 100,000 to AED 1,000,000, including AED 100,000 where a supplier fails to issue an invoice in Arabic.
Watch out
Two rules circulate widely in Dubai: that Arabic must occupy at least 50 percent of the advertising medium, and that it must sit above the English or in the upper or right-hand portion, with submissions rejected at technical review when Arabic is missing or carries spelling errors. Signage and advertising agencies including Bayan Advertising, Bab Al Mashriq and Media World all describe them. The decree article text retrieved for this piece states the Arabic-as-main-language requirement without those proportions. Treat them as reported municipal practice and confirm with the permitting authority for your medium.
The federal points are carried from law-firm summaries rather than from the primary regulation text. One question also stayed open: whether the Dubai advertising language rule reaches a brand film published only on a company's own social channels, as distinct from a paid placement in an advertising space. That distinction changes a budget, so treat it as a question for the permitting authority.
Modern Standard Arabic, Khaleeji, Emirati: the register decision
Good to know
The Netflix guide is a platform standard rather than a UAE requirement, and no UAE-published subtitle standard was found while researching this piece. It is doing the work of an absent local one, which is worth knowing when someone asks where the rules come from.
The written layer is Modern Standard Arabic
Modern Standard Arabic is the shared formal register across the Arab world. It is the language of news, official communication and written text, and it is nobody's conversational mother tongue.
The published standard for subtitles is unambiguous about it. The Netflix Arabic Timed Text Style Guide instructs that only Modern Standard Arabic be used and that dialectical words and expressions be avoided, and requires MSA spellings even in dialect variants where the spoken pronunciation differs.
The spoken layer is a dialect choice
Spoken performance runs the other way. Regional localisation and voice practice holds that MSA suits formal or news-adjacent delivery, Khaleeji suits Gulf-targeted campaigns, Emirati is the strongest choice for Dubai-local work, and Egyptian carries the widest pan-Arab reach. The production company Studio 52, the localisation provider Translated and the voice agency Dubai Voice Overs all describe the same split. They sell these services, so read them as practitioner practice rather than as neutral research, while noting they arrive at it independently.
Once the layers are separated, the apparent contradiction disappears. Written text follows MSA. Spoken performance follows the audience.
Two consequences land on the schedule rather than on a style guide. Casting first: a Khaleeji read is a different booking from an MSA read, and an authentic Emirati read is narrower again, so the register is decided at brief stage and not in a session. Scripting second: a dialect script is written to be spoken, not translated line by line from the English. A literal MSA translation performed in dialect sounds like neither, and it is the version a native speaker identifies in about four seconds.
The register matrix
Two layers, decided separately
| Layer | What it runs on |
|---|---|
| Written: subtitles, lower thirds, end cards | Modern Standard Arabic, across the board. Dialect spellings avoided even where the audio is in dialect. |
| Spoken: Dubai-local warmth | Emirati. The narrowest casting pool and the strongest local connection. |
| Spoken: Gulf reach | Khaleeji. The working choice for a GCC campaign. |
| Spoken: institutional or pan-regional | Modern Standard Arabic. Formal, news-adjacent, correct rather than warm. |
| Spoken: widest pan-Arab reach | Egyptian, where the audience is the Arab world rather than the Gulf. |
Written layer per the Netflix Arabic style guide. Spoken layer per regional localisation and voice practice.
What right-to-left does to the screen
Arabic is written right to left, and the script is connected. Letters take initial, medial, final and isolated forms depending on where they sit in a word, so a renderer that does not implement the full shaping model produces disconnected or malformed characters rather than an obvious error. The W3C Arabic and Persian Layout Requirements is the technical reference for that behaviour, along with justification and line breaking.
Bidirectional text is the everyday case rather than the edge case. Numbers, Latin words, brand names and URLs inside an Arabic line read left to right within a right-to-left sentence, and mishandling produces reversed or jumbled output, as the subtitling services Munsit and Subtitling.net both describe. Most brand films contain at least one Latin word, which is the brand's own name.
Numerals are a decision rather than a rule. Both Western digits and Arabic-Indic digits read left to right inside an Arabic line, and reported practice is that UAE and Saudi government content uses Western digits while traditional and religious texts use Arabic-Indic. Pick one for the brand, apply it consistently, and write it into the style sheet so the next production does not reopen it.
Length behaviour is not symmetrical either. Arabic often runs shorter on screen than the English it came from, and some phrases expand instead, so line length has to be checked per subtitle rather than assumed from the English timing.
None of this stops at subtitles. Lower thirds, end cards, logo lock-ups, captions and any interface shown on screen mirror in an Arabic version, and a layout designed for left-to-right English rarely mirrors cleanly without being redesigned.
Watch out
The failure mode here is silent, which is what makes it expensive. Broken Arabic shaping still looks like text to a team that does not read Arabic, so it passes internal approval and fails in public. Put a named Arabic-reading reviewer on the approval path before delivery, checking shaping, the handling of brand names and numbers inside a line, spelling and grammar. Municipal review of advertising rejects Arabic carrying grammatical and spelling errors, and nobody on the approving team can catch what they cannot read.
The numbers that constrain the edit
The specifications below come from the Netflix Arabic guide, which is an industry reference standard rather than a UAE requirement, and they are the numbers a producer needs.
The line that matters most is the reading speed. A film cut to English voiceover pacing can exceed a comfortable Arabic reading speed the moment it is subtitled, and the fix is in the picture cut rather than in the translation. Shots hold longer, or the line gets shorter, and both are decisions somebody has to make. Finding that out at delivery is how an Arabic version becomes a second edit.
Netflix Arabic Timed Text Style Guide · industry reference, not a UAE requirement
The four numbers that reach the picture cut
Also in the guide: numbers one to ten as words and figures above ten, no italics in Arabic, a single ellipsis character, no Latin letters for emails or websites, brand names transliterated or translated.
Subtitles, dual version, or one cut with two audio tracks
There are three structures, and the choice is a budget decision made at brief stage.
A subtitled single version is one grade, one online, one set of text elements and a subtitle file. It is the lowest cost by a distance. Its constraint is the reading speed, since the pacing was set for the spoken language, and it puts Arabic in second position on screen, which sits awkwardly against the Dubai requirement that Arabic be the main language of an advertisement.
A full dual version is two voiceover records, two passes on text elements with mirrored layout, and usually two slightly different picture timings, because the Arabic read rarely lands on the same frame as the English. It costs more, and for a paid placement it is generally what the placement needs.
The middle path is the one most of the market actually uses. One picture cut, two audio versions, and Arabic text elements built as a mirrored version of the same design rather than a redesign. Most of the added cost is the second voice record and the layout pass, not a second edit.
There is one more delivery choice underneath all three. Burned-in subtitles are safe from renderer failures on the destination platform, but they have to be shaped correctly at the point of render, and they cannot be corrected later without a new export. A sidecar subtitle file keeps the text editable and searchable, and depends on the platform to render Arabic properly.
Good to know
Whichever structure fits, choose it before casting. It decides the voice bookings, the script length and the edit, and reversing it later means paying for work twice.
Subtitled single version
One grade, one online, one set of text elements and a subtitle file. Lowest cost. Constrained by reading speed, and it puts Arabic second on screen.
One cut, two audio versions
The middle path most of the market uses. Second voice record plus a mirrored layout pass, on the same picture cut.
Full dual version
Two records, two text passes, two picture timings, because the Arabic read rarely lands on the same frame. Generally what a paid placement needs.
Who the audience actually is
Good to know
The widely circulated claims that Arabic accounts for under 1 percent, or around 3 percent, of online content were left out of this article on purpose. The sources disagree with each other and trace back roughly a decade. If a number is needed for a deck, the population and language-share estimates here are the defensible ones.
The UAE population is roughly 9.66 million, with expatriates at around 89 percent and Emirati nationals at around 11 percent, per reference sources. The share of residents speaking Arabic as a first language, Emirati and non-Emirati Arabs together, is estimated at 20 to 30 percent, per Britannica. Both are estimates rather than census-grade figures, and they are enough to make the point.
English carries a large share of the resident audience. Arabic carries the national audience, the regional audience beyond the UAE, and the regulatory requirement. Neither one covers the market a Dubai brand sells into, which is the honest case for bilingual over choosing a side.
The register, the structure and the layout are decided before anyone is cast.
How this changes the production plan
Decide the language structure at brief stage. Subtitled, dual-version, or one cut with two audio versions changes casting, script length and the edit, and none of those reverse cheaply.
Write the Arabic script rather than translating the English one, wherever the Arabic is spoken. Cast the register deliberately, Emirati or Khaleeji for local warmth and MSA for institutional or pan-regional delivery. Design the text elements for mirroring from the first frame of the design rather than adapting them afterwards. Budget an Arabic-reading review pass before delivery. And check the placement question early, because for a paid advertisement in Dubai the Arabic-as-main-language requirement and the permit sit upstream of the delivery date.
Who you hire is part of this. Grolez Films plans the Arabic layer at brief stage: which register is spoken, which is written, whether the film is subtitled or dual-version, how the text elements mirror, and who reads the Arabic before it goes out. The alternative is the film that arrives finished and then has Arabic added to it, where the reading speed fails, the brand name reverses inside a line, and the permit comes back over a spelling error.
On cost, the structural point is more useful than a figure. The delta between a subtitled version and a proper dual version is a second voice record and a layout pass, not a second production. For reference, indicative ranges run from a solo videographer around AED 3,500, which Grolez Films does not take on, to a DOP and small crew at roughly AED 25,000 to 45,000, to a full production from AED 100,000 upward.
Watch out
Keep the three sets of figures in this article apart. The advertising decree fines run AED 1,000 to AED 15,000. The consumer-protection penalties are reported from AED 100,000 upward. The production ranges are what a film costs to make. None of them convert into each other.
Common questions
Does our advertising legally have to be in Arabic?
In Dubai, yes. Article 11(7) of Decree No. 6 of 2020 requires the advertiser to use Arabic in the advertisement, and permits a foreign language beside it provided Arabic is the main language. Federally, the consumer-protection regime requires advertising, contracts, website information and invoices in Arabic, with other languages permitted in addition.
What happens if we do not?
Under the Dubai decree, a violation carries a fine of not less than AED 1,000 and not more than AED 15,000, doubled for a repeat within one year up to a cap of AED 30,000. The federal consumer-protection penalties are reported at a considerably higher range. The decree also requires a permit before displaying an advertisement in any advertising space in the emirate.
Should we subtitle, or produce a separate Arabic version?
Separate the two layers and the decision gets easier. Written text and spoken performance are different problems. A subtitle track is cheap and satisfies the language requirement. A separate spoken version is a performance decision, and it is the one that determines whether the film persuades an Arabic-speaking viewer or merely complies.
Modern Standard Arabic or Gulf dialect?
Both, in different places, which is why the apparent conflict resolves cleanly. The published subtitle standard is MSA only: Netflix's Arabic Timed Text Style Guide states that only Modern Standard Arabic should be used and dialectical words and expressions avoided, with MSA spellings retained even where pronunciation differs. Spoken performance is where dialect belongs, with Emirati for Dubai-local work and wider Khaleeji for regional reach.
Is the rule that Arabic must be 50 percent larger, and above the English?
Treat that as reported municipal practice rather than as retrieved law. The decree text retrieved for this article states the Arabic-as-main-language requirement without specifying proportions or placement. The 50 percent proportion and the Arabic-above-English placement are consistently reported by Dubai signage and advertising agencies, and whether they sit in implementing rules, in municipality signage guidance or both was not established.
Why do our Arabic subtitles come out disconnected or backwards?
Because Arabic script is connected and context-dependent, with letters taking initial, medial, final and isolated forms. Any renderer that does not implement the shaping model produces malformed characters. Bidirectional handling is a separate requirement, needed whenever Latin words, URLs or numerals appear inside an Arabic line. Both are worth testing on the actual delivery platform before a film is signed off.
What subtitle specifications should we brief?
The Netflix guide gives usable numbers: 42 characters per line, a maximum of two lines, and reading speed up to 20 characters per second for adult programming and 17 for children's, rising to 23 and 20 for subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing. Note that this is a platform standard used as an industry reference, not a UAE regulation.
What to hold onto, in one pass
Arabic in a Dubai film is two decisions, the written register and the spoken one. Written text follows Modern Standard Arabic. Spoken performance follows the audience, which for Dubai-local work usually means Emirati or Khaleeji. Right-to-left changes the layout and the reading speed, and the reading speed reaches the picture cut. In a paid advertisement, Arabic is required as the main language and the permit is the gate it is checked at. The delivery structure is chosen at brief stage, because it decides casting, script length and the edit.
This remains an operator's briefing rather than legal advice. Confirm the language and permit requirements for your own placement before you book it.
Grolez Films: the Arabic layer, planned at brief stage
We treat the Arabic version as part of the production rather than as a task that happens after it. The register decided before casting, the script written to be spoken, the text elements designed to mirror, the reading speed checked against the cut rather than found out at delivery, and a named Arabic reader on the approval path before anything is published.
Luis Grolez, the founder, pitches this personally, founder to founder. Get in touch about a specific brief and a specific quarter.
Sources and methodology
The Dubai language requirement, the permit requirement and the penalty band are taken from the text of Decree No. 6 of 2020 regulating advertisements as published on the Dubai Legislation portal, and the articles cited are 4(a), 11(6), 11(7) and 17(a). The federal consumer-protection position, under Federal Law No. 15 of 2020 and Cabinet Decision No. 66 of 2023, comes from law-firm analyses rather than from the instruments themselves. The subtitle standard and its numbers come from Netflix's published Arabic Timed Text Style Guide, which is a platform standard used across the industry as a reference and is not a UAE regulation; that limitation is stated in the article rather than glossed. The 50 percent size proportion and the Arabic-above-English placement are consistently reported by Dubai signage and advertising agencies but do not appear in the decree text retrieved here, so they are presented as reported municipal practice pending a primary check, and whether they sit in implementing rules or in municipality guidance was not established. Script shaping and bidirectional requirements are taken from the W3C's Arabic layout requirements. Circulating figures for the share of online content in Arabic were excluded: they range from under 1 percent to 3 percent and trace to sources roughly a decade old. This article is informational and is not legal advice. Prepared 11 August 2026.
- Decree No. 6 of 2020 Regulating Advertisements in the Emirate of Dubai, Articles 4(a), 11(6), 11(7) and 17(a), Dubai Legislation portal: dlp.dubai.gov.ae
- Netflix, Arabic Timed Text Style Guide, on Modern Standard Arabic and subtitle specifications: partnerhelp.netflixstudios.com
- W3C, Arabic and Persian Layout Requirements, on script shaping and bidirectional text: w3.org
- K&L Gates, update on UAE consumer protection and e-commerce laws: klgates.com
- Pinsent Masons, on the revamped UAE consumer protection regime: pinsentmasons.com
- Chambers, on revised penalties under the consumer protection law: chambers.com