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Under Federal Decree-Law No. 11 of 2025, announced on 18 December 2025, the National Media Authority (NMA) replaced the former UAE Media Council as the federal media regulator, consolidating it together with the National Media Office and the Emirates News Agency (WAM). Content, advice or contracts that still refer to the Media Council as the relevant authority are describing a body that no longer holds that role — this is a live staleness issue, not a historical footnote, since the change is recent enough that outdated references are still common.

Anyone relying on media-regulatory content published before December 2025 should confirm it's been updated to reflect the NMA, particularly for licensing, advertiser-permit and content-classification matters where the regulator's identity actually matters for where you file and who you deal with.

The core substantive media statute remains Federal Decree-Law No. 55 of 2023, which sets out the framework for media content, licensing and conduct that the NMA now administers as regulator, following the Media Council's replacement. The December 2025 change was a change of regulator, not a wholesale replacement of the underlying substantive law.

A media business should distinguish between the two: Federal Decree-Law No. 55 of 2023 sets the substantive rules, and the NMA is now the body that administers and enforces them, having taken over that role from the Media Council.

Influencers and content creators who promote products or services commercially in the UAE generally need an Advertiser Permit, issued by the NMA, and are expected to follow disclosure and content-standard requirements when publishing sponsored or promotional content. This applies regardless of which platform the content is published on.

A creator or brand running an influencer campaign should confirm the creator holds a current Advertiser Permit and that sponsored content is properly disclosed, since both the platform's own terms and the NMA's requirements can be engaged by the same campaign.

The GCGRA is a real, established federal regulator for commercial gaming, set up on 3 September 2023, with its own licensing regime covering five categories: gaming operators, gaming-related vendors, key persons (corporate), key persons (individual), and gaming employees. It already has live licensees operating under this framework.

The specific Cabinet Decision or Federal Decree-Law number that formally established the GCGRA is not publicly published, so this page does not cite one — the authority's existence, its 2023 establishment date and its five licence categories are confirmed directly from the regulator's own published material, and that's the reliable basis to work from rather than a number that can't be sourced.

A gaming operator licence covers the entity actually running the gaming activity; a gaming-related vendor licence covers suppliers of gaming equipment, technology or services to licensed operators; key-person licences (corporate and individual) cover the entities and individuals with significant control or influence over a licensed operator; and a gaming employee licence covers individual staff working in licensed gaming operations.

Getting the right licence category — and understanding which other parties in a gaming venture also need their own licence — is a genuinely technical exercise, and a lawyer should map the full ownership and operational structure against GCGRA's categories before an application is filed.

The existence of a licensed commercial gaming framework does not mean gambling is broadly legal in the UAE — commercial gaming activity outside GCGRA's licensed structure remains prohibited under UAE law. GCGRA licensing is a defined, regulated exception, not a general opening of the market.

A business considering any activity that could be characterised as gambling or commercial gaming should get a clear legal assessment of whether GCGRA licensing applies to it before proceeding, rather than assuming an activity is permitted simply because gaming is licensed in some form in the UAE.

Federal Decree-Law No. 26 of 2025 establishes a child digital-safety framework that reaches into games, edtech platforms and any digital service used by minors, covering protections around content, contact and data handling for younger users. It was issued on 1 October 2025 and entered into force on 1 January 2026, with Article 18 allowing entities a period not exceeding one year from that date to regularise, extendable by Cabinet Resolution. Article 3 applies it to internet service providers and digital platforms operating within the State or directed at users in the State, whenever children use the platform or are exposed to its content or services — so it applies whether or not the platform is designed for children.

Games, edtech products and streaming platforms with any meaningful child user base should have their compliance position reviewed against this law specifically, rather than assuming general data-protection or content-moderation compliance is sufficient on its own.

Cabinet Resolution No. 106 of 2026 on the Regulation of Children's Access to Social Media Platforms was issued on 17 June 2026 and took effect on 30 June 2026, with a twelve-month transition period for platforms under Article 8(1). Article 3(1) prohibits children who have not attained the age of fifteen from creating, using or operating any personal account, with enhanced restrictions and parental controls for ages fifteen and sixteen. Article 5(4) requires platforms to refrain from targeting children with advertisements based on tracking and behavioural profiling, or from processing their personal data for commercial purposes based on tracking their digital activity, leaving general contextual advertising outside that prohibition. This is a specific, recent restriction that platforms serving a general audience need to actively check against, not assume doesn't apply to them.

A platform that allows or cannot effectively prevent under-15 access, or that uses behavioural targeting in ways that could reach child users, should have its age-verification, content-targeting and advertising practices reviewed specifically against this resolution.

Broadcasting and content distribution in the UAE requires licensing, with content classification and standards obligations administered under the NMA's current regulatory role. A broadcaster or streaming platform should confirm its specific licence covers the content types and distribution methods it actually uses, since licensing scope can be narrower than a platform's actual operations.

Content classification — what audience a given piece of content is suitable for, and how that's labelled and enforced — is a live compliance obligation, not a one-time filing, and platforms should have an ongoing process for classifying new content rather than relying on a single approval covering everything they publish.

Dubai and Abu Dhabi each have dedicated media free zones offering their own licensing regimes for media, production and content businesses, sitting alongside the federal NMA framework rather than replacing it for content that's actually broadcast or distributed to the public. A free-zone media licence covers the corporate and operational side of the business; content-specific obligations under the NMA framework still apply to what's actually published or broadcast.

A production company or media business should be clear about which of its activities are covered by its free-zone licence and which additionally require NMA-level content compliance, rather than assuming free-zone registration is the whole regulatory picture.

A game publishing agreement governs the commercial relationship between a developer and a publisher — covering revenue share, platform rights, marketing obligations, IP ownership and control over updates or sequels — and is a heavily negotiated commercial contract distinct from any regulatory licensing the game itself might need. Developers should have publishing agreements reviewed for IP and revenue terms specifically, since these are often the most consequential, and most negotiable, provisions.

Where a game includes in-game purchases, loot boxes or similar monetisation mechanics, the publishing agreement should also address how any regulatory risk around those mechanics is allocated between developer and publisher, alongside the underlying legal assessment of the mechanic itself.

In-game monetisation mechanics — loot boxes, randomised purchases, and similar features — sit in a genuinely unsettled area of law in many jurisdictions, including the UAE, where the line between a permitted purchase mechanic and a form of gambling requiring GCGRA licensing isn't always self-evident. A game studio using these mechanics should get a specific legal assessment rather than assuming a mechanic common in other markets is automatically fine in the UAE.

This is an area where regulatory positions can shift, so a studio should treat this as an ongoing compliance question to revisit, not a one-time clearance.

Esports competitions and gaming events involve their own layer of considerations — event and venue licensing, prize-pool structuring, participant agreements, sponsorship and broadcasting rights, and, where entry fees or wagering-adjacent formats are involved, a need to confirm the format doesn't inadvertently cross into GCGRA-licensed territory. Event organisers should get this assessed before announcing prize structures publicly.

Sponsorship and broadcasting agreements for esports events also intersect with the NMA's broadcasting and advertising framework, so an event with both a live and streamed component needs both angles covered.

Influencers and content creators commonly need several distinct types of agreement — brand-sponsorship deals, talent-representation or management agreements with an agency, and IP or likeness-licensing terms governing how their content or image can be used and by whom. These are separate commercial relationships, each with different leverage points and risks, and shouldn't be handled with a single generic template.

A creator negotiating a first significant brand deal or agency agreement benefits from a lawyer reviewing exclusivity terms, usage rights and termination provisions specifically, since these are the terms most likely to create problems later if left vague.

Platforms hosting user-generated content — whether a streaming service, a social platform or a gaming community feature — need a content-moderation and takedown process that satisfies both general UAE content-standard expectations and, where children are involved, the child-digital-safety framework specifically. A platform's terms of service and actual moderation practice should be reviewed together, since a gap between the two is a real compliance risk.

Copyright and trademark issues also arise regularly in user-generated content and game-modding contexts, and a platform should have a clear, lawyer-reviewed process for handling takedown requests and disputes over ownership of user-created content.

Film and television production in the UAE — whether local content or an international production filming in the UAE — generally requires production permits, and Dubai and Abu Dhabi each run their own film-commission-style processes for productions filming within their territory. Getting the right permits, location clearances and any required content pre-approval sorted before filming begins avoids production delays.

A production company should also address cast and crew engagement, location agreements and IP ownership of the finished production as part of its legal preparation, alongside the permitting process itself — these are separate legal workstreams that need to run in parallel, not sequentially.