Arezo TV

About Arezo TV

Arezo TV (تلویزیون آرزو) is an independent television network headquartered in Mazar-i-Sharif, in Afghanistan's northern Balkh Province, with an office in Kabul. Founded by Kamal Nabizada and launched on Nowruz — the Persian New Year — in 2007, it is the major independent network of northern Afghanistan, broadcasting primarily in Dari with Pashto-language news. After being shut down for 86 days between December 2024 and early 2025, it reopened following an acquittal and remains active in 2026, with news bulletins documented on its YouTube channel through July of that year.

About Arezo TV

Arezo TV is northern Afghanistan's major independent television network. Where most of the country's prominent channels are headquartered in Kabul, Arezo built its identity in Mazar-i-Sharif — the great northern city that is Balkh Province's capital and Afghanistan's fourth-largest urban centre — giving it a regional character unusual among national broadcasters. A Kabul office extends its newsgathering to the capital, but the network's roots and headquarters are in the north.

The channel is owned by Kamal Nabizada, according to published sources, and operates as an independent broadcaster rather than a state or partisan outlet. Its name — "Arezo," meaning wish or aspiration in Dari — reflects the optimistic moment of its founding, in the years when Afghanistan's private media sector was expanding rapidly and new channels were launching across the country.

Arezo's editorial centre of gravity is news and current affairs for a northern audience. Its YouTube channel, "ArezoNews," carries scheduled news bulletins — including a "12:00 PM News" edition documented on 27 July 2026 — confirming a working newsroom producing regular television journalism from Mazar-i-Sharif. Dari is the network's primary broadcast language, with news also produced in Pashto, reflecting the bilingual reality of its audience.

For viewers in northern Afghanistan, Arezo has long been the home-region network: a channel headquartered in their part of the country, reporting with a northern perspective that Kabul-based channels do not always provide. That regional identity is its most distinctive asset.

History

Arezo TV was launched on Nowruz 2007 — the Persian New Year festival marking the spring equinox — according to published sources, under the ownership of Kamal Nabizada. The timing placed it squarely in Afghanistan's private-media boom: the years after 2001 saw television transform from a state monopoly into a crowded marketplace of private channels, and Arezo entered as the north's answer to the Kabul-based networks.

From its Mazar-i-Sharif headquarters, the network grew through the late 2000s and 2010s into what published sources describe as northern Afghanistan's major independent network — a regional broadcaster with national reach, maintaining its northern base while operating a Kabul office to cover the capital. Its longevity through those years established it as a fixture of the Afghan media landscape outside Kabul.

The network's most difficult chapter came at the end of 2024. In December of that year, the authorities closed Arezo TV, taking it off air. The shutdown lasted 86 days — nearly three months of silence — before the channel was acquitted and permitted to reopen in early 2025, according to press-freedom reporting. The episode was a stark illustration of the pressures facing independent Afghan broadcasters, and the channel's return to air a measure of its resilience.

Since reopening, Arezo has resumed regular operations. Its "ArezoNews" YouTube channel carried a "12:00 PM News" bulletin on 27 July 2026 — primary evidence of an active newsroom producing scheduled bulletins more than a year after the shutdown ended. As of October 2026, the network continues to broadcast from Mazar-i-Sharif as an independent, in-country Afghan television service.

Programming and coverage

Arezo TV's programming is built around television news. The documented output — scheduled bulletins such as the "12:00 PM News" edition of 27 July 2026 on the "ArezoNews" YouTube channel — shows a newsroom working to a regular bulletin rhythm, producing the midday news for its audience as a daily appointment.

The network's coverage reflects its northern identity. Headquartered in Mazar-i-Sharif with a Kabul office, it is positioned to report both its home region and the capital — northern Afghanistan's stories told by a northern newsroom, alongside national coverage from Kabul. That dual perspective distinguishes it from channels that cover the north only from a Kabul newsroom.

Dari is the primary language of the network's output, serving the Persian-speaking majority of its northern heartland, with news bulletins also produced in Pashto. Published sources additionally note Uzbek-language output in the channel's history — a natural fit for a Mazar-i-Sharif broadcaster, given the significant Uzbek-speaking population of northern Afghanistan — though current Uzbek programming could not be verified for this profile.

What the public record confirms is a working television news operation: regular bulletins, a bilingual newsroom, and a broadcast footprint rooted in the north. The finer details of its current programme schedule are not publicly documented, and this profile does not speculate beyond what the verified sources support.

Languages and platforms

Arezo TV broadcasts primarily in Dari, with news output in Pashto, according to published and primary sources — the bulletin titles and channel branding documented in 2026 are in Dari, and Pashto news is part of the verified lineup. Uzbek has featured in the channel's output historically, reflecting its northern audience, though this could not be confirmed as current.

Television is the network's home platform, broadcasting from Mazar-i-Sharif. Its most verifiable digital presence is the "ArezoNews" YouTube channel, which carried the "12:00 PM News" bulletin on 27 July 2026 and serves as the public record of the network's recent output. For an outlet whose websites have proven unreliable — see below — the YouTube channel is currently the most accessible window onto its journalism.

The network lists two web addresses, arezo.com and arezo.news. A check on 13 October 2026 found arezo.com serving only a parked placeholder page inviting business inquiries, while arezo.news returned a server error — so neither site currently functions as a working outlet homepage. Readers looking for Arezo TV online will have better luck with its "ArezoNews" YouTube channel until the web presence is restored.

Location and operating status

Arezo TV is headquartered in Mazar-i-Sharif, Balkh Province, Afghanistan, with an office in Kabul. It is an in-country operation — not in exile — broadcasting from northern Afghanistan under the ownership of Kamal Nabizada.

As of October 2026, the network is active. Its YouTube channel carried a scheduled news bulletin in July 2026, more than a year after its acquittal and reopening following the 86-day shutdown of December 2024 to early 2025. Its country of service is Afghanistan, with its editorial heart in the north of the country.

Official website and contact

The network's listed web addresses are https://www.arezo.com and https://arezo.news, though neither was functioning as a working site when checked on 13 October 2026. Its "ArezoNews" YouTube channel carries recent news bulletins and is currently the most reliable way to follow its output.

WorldNM is an independent directory and does not own, operate or represent Arezo TV. For inquiries, please use the network's own channels.

Sources and last verified

This profile was verified on 13 October 2026. The network's Mazar-i-Sharif headquarters, Kabul office, owner Kamal Nabizada, Nowruz 2007 launch and the 86-day closure of December 2024 to early 2025 ending in acquittal and reopening are corroborated by secondary sources including press-freedom reporting; the July 2026 "12:00 PM News" bulletin on the "ArezoNews" YouTube channel provides primary evidence of current activity. Both listed websites were checked directly on the verification date and found non-functional (parked page and server error respectively), as noted above. As with all directory entries, facts reflect what was publicly verifiable on the verification date.