Rudaw TV

About Rudaw TV

Rudaw TV is the flagship television channel of the Rudaw Media Network, a Kurdish news broadcaster headquartered in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region. Broadcasting in Kurdish and English alongside Arabic and Turkish digital services, the channel delivers news and current affairs from Iraqi Kurdistan and the wider Middle East to Kurdish communities around the world. In the United Kingdom it made history in December 2019 when it became the first Kurdish-language television channel to launch on Freeview, where it is available on channel 271 via the Channelbox streaming platform, bringing news in Kurdish to a diaspora of more than 250,000 Kurds living in Britain. Its official website and live stream are published at rudaw.net.

Origins and launch

The Rudaw story began in print. In 2008 the Rudaw Media Network was founded as a weekly newspaper distributed in the Kurdistan Region and in Europe, where its European edition quickly gained international attention among the growing Kurdish diaspora. Over the following years the network moved decisively into broadcasting: a satellite television station was built in Erbil, and Rudaw TV launched in May 2013 as a 24-hour news channel. The television operation was designed from the start as a high-definition service, with the network selecting broadcast technology from Harris Broadcast Communications to build what was described at the time as the first HD file-based news production and playout facility in Iraqi Kurdistan. The network was among the first in Kurdistan and Iraq to broadcast in high definition, a point its chief technology officer Hejar Berenji has cited as evidence of the network’s pioneering ambitions.

Rudaw’s portfolio today extends well beyond the television channel. The network operates Rudaw Radio, which broadcasts on shortwave across the Middle East, alongside a comprehensive website published in Kurdish, English, Arabic and Turkish, and a print legacy that has since moved to a fully digital format. The organisation is reported to employ around 550 full-time staff, with offices in Sulaymaniyah, Kirkuk and Duhok as well as in Baghdad, Qamishlo in Syria, Istanbul, Berlin, London, New York and Washington, giving it correspondents across the Middle East, Europe and the United States. In 2023 the network announced a major technical transformation, selecting Imagine Communications to provide next-generation production and playout facilities as part of a move to an all-new eight-storey headquarters complex in Erbil, built around SMPTE ST 2110 IP connectivity with 4K UHD production and playout capabilities.

Ownership and editorial position

Rudaw Media Network is funded and supported by the Rudaw Company, and its stated mission is to disseminate news and information concerning Kurdistan and the broader Middle East. Academic and journalistic accounts of the Kurdish media landscape consistently describe Rudaw as aligned with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and supported by Nechirvan Barzani, the Kurdistan Region’s president and former prime minister, whose backing was widely reported at the channel’s launch. The network’s founder and original publisher, Noreldin Waisy, resigned amid public allegations of interference in editorial operations, and the channel has long operated in a partisan media environment in which each of the Kurdistan Region’s main political parties maintains its own outlets, from K24 and Kurdistan TV on the KDP side to KurdSat and Channel 8 on the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan side.

Day-to-day leadership of the network has included figures such as chief executive Ako Mohammed and chief technology officer Hejar Berenji, who has overseen both the original HD build and the network’s migration to IP-based 4K infrastructure. Rudaw describes its journalism as independent, and its multilingual output has made it one of the most prominent Kurdish news brands internationally, frequently cited by global media for developments in Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran. Critics, however, continue to scrutinise the closeness between the channel’s ownership and the KDP leadership, a tension that reflects the broader reality of Kurdish media, where outlets are often understood as much through their political affiliations as through their editorial content.

News coverage and programming

Rudaw TV’s schedule is built around rolling news, live reporting and current affairs programming focused on Iraqi Kurdistan and the Middle East. The channel broadcasts primarily in Kurdish, in both the Sorani and Kurmanji dialects, with English-language services that have made its reporting accessible to international audiences, diplomats and analysts following the region. Its news agenda has been shaped by the defining stories of the past decade in Kurdistan: the war against the Islamic State, in which Kurdish peshmerga forces played a central role; the Kurdistan independence referendum of September 2017; Turkish and Iranian cross-border operations; and the political and economic affairs of the Kurdistan Regional Government.

Beyond hard news, the network produces documentaries, talk programming and cultural content, and its television output is complemented by radio services offering distinctive news and music programming. Rudaw’s correspondents have reported from conflict zones and political centres across the region, and the network’s live satellite feeds have frequently been picked up by international broadcasters during breaking news from northern Iraq and northeastern Syria. The channel’s reporting on Kurdish affairs in Turkey, Iran and Syria has given it an audience well beyond Iraq’s borders, among the estimated tens of millions of Kurds living across the four parts of Kurdistan and in the diaspora.

The UK launch and the Kurdish diaspora

Rudaw’s arrival on British television in December 2019 was a landmark for the Kurdish community in the United Kingdom. The channel launched on Freeview channel 271 through Channelbox, a multi-channel service that delivers a curated selection of free-to-air channels to Freeview via the public internet and caters specifically to international communities living in the UK. At launch, Channelbox’s line-up included France 24, Hellenic TV, Retro Movies and Law & Crime alongside Rudaw, with more channels promised for the following year.

The launch was announced with statements from both sides of the partnership. Channelbox’s head of business development, Tanya Kronfli, said the service was thrilled to deliver news to the Kurdish diaspora in the UK in their own language and pledged to continue expanding its portfolio of channels for the communities who had made Britain their home. Rudaw Media Network’s Hejar Berenji described the launch as a new step in imparting news and information easily to the Kurdish diaspora in Britain, extending New Year greetings to the Kurdish people of Britain on the occasion. With more than 250,000 Kurds estimated to live in the UK, one of the largest Kurdish diasporas in the world, Rudaw became the first Kurdish-language channel available on the country’s biggest free television platform.

Controversies and challenges

Rudaw’s prominence has brought it into conflict with authorities in Baghdad. In October 2017, weeks after the Kurdistan independence referendum, Iraq’s Media and Communications Commission ordered the closure of Rudaw’s operations in the country and the seizure of its equipment, accusing the channel of inciting violence and hatred and targeting social peace and security. The commission argued that Rudaw, licensed by the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry of Culture, was not licensed by its own body. Rudaw said it had not been officially notified of the decision, and the practical enforcement of the ban on an Erbil-based broadcaster remained unclear.

The network has also faced scrutiny over its finances and independence. Reports and academic studies have questioned the sources of the substantial funding behind the television launch, and the network’s founder publicly alleged editorial interference linked to the KDP after his resignation. Economic pressures have at times affected the channel: analysts noted that the decline in oil prices and the war against the Islamic State seriously affected the Kurdistan Regional Government’s economy, substantially reducing Rudaw’s financial resources. The channel continues to operate in one of the most politically charged media environments in the Middle East, where journalism, party politics and questions of national identity are inseparable.

Multilingual digital operation

Rudaw’s website is one of the most widely read Kurdish news sources in the world, publishing in Kurdish, English, Arabic and Turkish with dedicated sections for news, sport, health, weather and blogs, alongside archives of its television and radio programmes. The English-language site in particular has become a standard reference for international journalists, researchers and policymakers seeking Kurdish perspectives on regional developments. The network maintains an active social media presence and mobile applications, and its live television stream is accessible to global audiences online, extending the channel’s reach far beyond its satellite footprint.

The digital operation employs dozens of journalists working across the four language editions, and the site accepts audience contributions of comments, photographs and video. This multi-platform strategy, combining television, radio, print heritage and digital, has been central to Rudaw’s ambition to serve as the primary news source for Kurds worldwide, a goal reflected in its bureaus in European and American capitals and its correspondents across the Middle East.

Technology and modernisation

Rudaw has consistently invested in broadcast technology as a marker of its professional ambitions. The original television facility, built with Harris infrastructure including a Platinum router and HView SX Pro multiviewers, was presented at launch as the most comprehensive streamlined HD file-based news production workflow in the region. A decade later, the network embarked on a still more ambitious upgrade, commissioning Imagine Communications and systems integrator WAVE Media Solutions to build an all-IP, 4K UHD production and playout installation for its new headquarters complex in Erbil.

The new eight-storey complex, announced in September 2023, was designed to house multiple studios and television channels supported by IP infrastructure, with complete playout automation and master control including multiviewers, UHD conversion processing, network orchestration and routing control. The installation was scheduled to go live in early 2024, underlining the network’s intention to maintain the pioneering technical position it claimed at its launch and to produce content to the highest professional standards for its growing international audience.

How to watch in the UK

In the United Kingdom, Rudaw TV is available on Freeview channel 271 via the Channelbox platform, which can be accessed through Channelbox-enabled Freeview devices and the Channelbox app, delivering the channel over the internet to Freeview televisions. The channel is also available internationally via satellite and through the live stream on the Rudaw website. For Kurdish speakers in Britain, the Freeview launch ended years in which Kurdish television was available only via satellite dishes or online, placing a Kurdish news channel alongside the mainstream British channels on the country’s most widely used free television platform.

Viewers can also follow Rudaw’s output through its English-language website at rudaw.net/english, its mobile apps and its social media channels, which carry breaking news alerts and video clips alongside the full television schedule. The network’s radio services and digital archives provide additional ways to access its programming on demand.

Official website

Rudaw TV’s official online home is rudaw.net, where the channel’s live stream, on-demand video, and news coverage in Kurdish, English, Arabic and Turkish are published. The site carries the network’s television schedule, correspondent reports from across the Middle East, Europe and the United States, and the full archive of Rudaw’s radio and television programming.