Imam Hussain TV
Imam Hussain TV is the collective name for the satellite television channels of the Imam Hussein Media Group, a Shia Islamic media organisation that broadcasts religious lectures, documentaries and live coverage from Karbala, Iraq, to audiences around the world. Receivable free-to-air via satellite across Europe, including the United Kingdom, the group's channels broadcast in Persian, Arabic, English, Urdu and Turkish, carrying teaching, discussion and cultural programming centred on the Ahl al-Bayt and the life and martyrdom of Imam Hussein. In Britain the English-language service, Imam Hussein TV 3, is the most accessible face of the network, supported by apps, streaming and IPTV services that carry the channels far beyond their satellite footprint.
The media group behind the channels
Imam Hussein Media Group describes itself as an independent media organisation aiming to revive the culture of the Ahlul-Bayt and disseminate Shia Ithna-Ashari (Twelver) teachings. It operates as a multi-media entity owning several television channels plus a news agency, distributing its programmes by satellite, internet, IPTV and smartphone. The group began operating in 2009, and over the following years it built a family of language-specific channels, each launched, pointedly, on the anniversary of Imam Hussein's birth on the 3rd of Sha'aban. Its work is associated with the guidance of Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Sadiq al-Shirazi, and its director, Sheikh Mustafa al-Muhammadi, has credited the group's growth over fifteen years to hundreds of young specialists working in media fields around the world.
The Persian channel: where it began
The group's first television service was its Persian channel, founded on 3 Sha'aban — 26 July 2009 — in Iran, bearing a slogan evoking a Husseiniya transcending galaxies. It broadcasts programmes about the tenets, doctrine and culture of Twelver Shi'ism entirely in Persian. By the group's own figures, between its launch and 2016 the Persian channel generated around 9,968 hours of programming, produced in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, England, Canada and the United States, and broadcast via Hotbird and Galaxy satellites to cover the Middle East, Europe, parts of North Africa, the US, Canada, Mexico and other Latin American countries. For UK viewers, its Hotbird footprint is what first made Imam Hussain TV receivable in British homes with a satellite dish pointed at the European satellite arc.
The Arabic channel from Karbala
The Arabic Imam Hussein TV channel was founded on 3 Sha'aban — 22 June 2012 — in Karbala, Iraq, three years after the group launched, under a slogan about Husseini light illuminating horizons. Karbala, home to the shrine of Imam Hussein, is the spiritual anchor of the whole network, and the Arabic service is its flagship for the Arab world. By 2016 it had generated about 6,877 hours of Arabic programming, produced across an even wider list of countries — Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait, England, Canada and the US — and broadcast on NileSat and Galaxy to cover the Middle East, most of Europe, North Africa, North America and Mexico. Live coverage from Karbala, especially at religious seasons, sits at the heart of its schedule.
The English channel: Imam Hussein TV 3
For British viewers the key service is the English channel, established on 3 Sha'aban — 11 June 2013 — in Karbala, four years after the group began. Billed with a slogan dedicating it to young Shia, it was designed to carry the group's message to English-speaking Muslims in Britain, North America and beyond. By 2016 it had produced about 1,497 hours of English-language or English-subtitled programming, made in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, England, Canada and the US and broadcast on Hotbird and Galaxy. Its output includes lectures by well-known English-speaking Shia speakers — among them Dr Sayed Ammar Nakshawani, whose series are staples of the channel's YouTube presence — as well as documentaries, question-and-answer programmes in which viewers put questions to scholars, children's and family content, and seasonal programming.
Urdu, Turkish and Al-Zahra
The family continued to grow by language. An Urdu service, Imam Hussein TV 4, serves South Asian audiences, while the Turkish-language presence came through Al-Zahra TV. After ten years of independent operation, Al-Zahra was integrated into Imam Hussein Media Group on 19 January 2016, starting under new management with programmes in Turkish and Azeri, headquartered in Baku, Azerbaijan; it had previously broadcast in Arabic, Persian, Azeri and Russian via Hotbird and Turksat. Together the group's channels — Persian, Arabic, English, Urdu and Turkish — give it a five-language television portfolio broadcasting around the clock, a scale its supporters describe as a source of pride for the people of Karbala and for Shia communities worldwide.
Shia Waves: the news agency
Alongside the channels sits a news operation. The group's news division was founded on 15 Sha'aban — 4 July 2012 — as Shia Waves, with a stated mission to disseminate news about the successes and the wrongs suffered by Shia Muslims around the world. It publishes in Arabic, Persian and English and distributes on six satellite and cable channels as well as online and on smartphones. By May 2016 it had published more than 12,700 news stories, covering subjects from the Islamic world, Shia jurist authorities and holy shrines to science and technology, Shia media, and art and culture. For viewers, Shia Waves bulletins and its social media feeds connect the channels' devotional programming to a rolling account of Shia community life globally.
Muharram, Arbaeen and live event coverage
The network's defining broadcasts are its religious seasons. The group says it was the first Shia satellite broadcaster to transmit the Arbaeen pilgrimage — the mass walk to Karbala culminating forty days after Ashura — to the world, more than a decade ago. Its Arbaeen coverage deploys producers, correspondents and photographers along the pilgrims' route from the far south of Iraq to Karbala, across its channels in five languages, mixing live pictures with talk shows and interviews with clerics, thinkers and writers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when mourning gatherings were restricted, programmes such as Welcome to Karbala, a call-in show established in 2016, and its primetime successor #IAMHUSSEINI gave dispersed viewers, including those in Britain, a televised way to share devotion during Muharram.
How UK viewers watch
In the United Kingdom the channels have been receivable free-to-air via satellite across Europe, the route by which most British Shia households first encountered them. Increasingly, though, viewing has moved online. The Imam Hussein TV app, free on Android and iOS, offers 24/7 live streaming of the channels, a programme archive, notifications for special programmes and religious events, and a multilingual interface; the group says its content is also available on most IPTV boxes and on devices including Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV and smart TVs from Samsung and LG, alongside a substantial YouTube presence for individual programmes. This platform spread means the 'UK service' is effectively borderless: a viewer in London watches the same live Karbala feed as one in Toronto or Tehran.
Independence and supporter funding
The group emphasises its independence from political and external pressures, and it actively fundraises from its audience to sustain that position. Its '14,000 Supporters' campaign, launched at the start of the month of Rajab, sought at least 14,000 individuals contributing over fourteen days, presenting monthly participation as a partnership that keeps the media work independent and allows it to continue spreading its message and educating audiences. Donation routes are promoted across the channels and their social media, and special programmes with media experts and guest speakers have been used to explain the role of religious media in preserving faith and identity.
Place in British Shia media life
Imam Hussain TV's significance in Britain is as infrastructure for a minority faith community: it brings lectures, mourning ceremonies, documentaries and live shrine coverage into British homes in the languages those households actually speak — English for the British-born generation, and Persian, Arabic, Urdu and Turkish for their parents and grandparents. Production credits listing England among its programme-making countries underline that Britain is not merely a reception area but part of the network's creative footprint. As a directory entry it stands for a wider truth about UK satellite television: some of the most-watched 'British' channels in particular communities are global religious networks for whom London is one node in a worldwide congregation.
