Licensable activity
Media, creative & marketing
Producing, publishing or distributing content, and the advertising and marketing trades attached to it. Film and television production, publishing, broadcasting, design studios, PR and advertising agencies.
Classification
How it is coded.
UAE activity lists derive from ISIC Revision 4, the United Nations industrial classification. Each emirate's economic department and each free zone then extends that base with its own numbering, so the same activity carries a different code in Dubai than it does in Sharjah or inside DMCC.
- ISIC Rev. 4
- Section J — divisions 58–60 (publishing, film, broadcasting); Section M — division 73 (advertising)
- Licence category
- Commercial or Professional, plus a media permit
- Regulator
- UAE Media Council
Approvals beyond the licence
- Media content
- A permit from the UAE Media Council sits on top of the trade licence for most content activities. Media free zones normally facilitate it as part of setup.
- Filming on location
- Per-emirate film permits — Dubai Film and TV Commission, Abu Dhabi's Creative Media Authority — issued shoot by shoot.
- Publishing
- Title registration, and content approval for printed material.
In practice
The media free zones exist because this sector needed a licensing route that understood it. twofour54, Dubai Media City, SHAMS, SPC and Fujairah Creative City span an enormous cost range for what is nominally the same licence — from a few thousand dirhams to many multiples of that.
Coverage
Where it can be licensed.
Of the 40 licensing authorities across the UAE, 9 issue licences covering this activity, spread across 5 of the seven emirates.