Private company

ARY Digital Network

Television channel

ARY Digital Network (Urdu: ARY ڈیجیٹل شبکه) is a subsidiary of the ARY Group. The ARY group of companies is a Dubai-based holding company founded by a Pakistani businessman, Haji Abdul Razzak Yaqoob and Salman Iqbal (ARY). The network has a video on demand streaming service called ARY PLUS, formerly known as ARY ZAP.² Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

2000Founded¹

Industrymass media¹
Websitearydigitalnetwork.tv

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The story

ARY Digital, formerly known as the Pakistani Channel, was launched in the United Kingdom in December 2000 to cater to the growing demands of South Asian entertainment in the region. It uses Samacom, a monopolising uplink provider based in the UAE, as the uplink teleport station.

Affiliate programming

Recently ARY Digital has affiliated with several other television networks to promote their content in Pakistan. Amongst these are Fashion TV for which a regional channel FTV Pakistan has been airing since December 2005 on the ARY Digital network. Plans are under way for Al Jazeera Urdu in affiliation with Al Jazeera targeting 110 million Urdu-speaking households worldwide and HBO Pakistan in association with HBO's south-Asian division. With the network's help, Nickelodeon is also planning to kick-start its operations in Nick Pakistan where it would be beamed into 2.5 million households with kids.

Channel list

ARY Digital Network is composed of the following channels:

ARY Digital HD – HD Entertainment Channel for Asia Region

A Sports HD Sports Channel

ARY Zindagi HD – Infotainment Channel & Turkish drama Urdu dubbing

ARY Musik HD – 24-hour Music

ARY News HD – 24-hour Independent News

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ARY Qtv HD – Quran TV, Religious Content

International Channel List

ARY Digital UK HD – Infotainment for UK Region

ARY Family – Infotainment for UK Region

Ary News New Vision TV HD – 24-hour Independent News for UK Region

ARY Films – Film Distributing Company

ARY Tube – Official Video Portal of ARY Digital Network

ARY Arabia – YouTube channel presenting Pakistani dramas, OST's Arabic dubbed.

Over The Top (OTT)

ARY Plus

Defunct channels

ARY Zauq

ATN ARY Digital

The Musik

VH1 Pakistan

Fashion TV Pakistan

HBO Pakistan

QTV

ARY Sahulat Bazar

Nickelodeon Pakistan

ARY TECH

ARY Zap

From Wikipedia’s article on ARY Digital Network, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.³

Subsidiaries and ownership

Owners

ARY Group

From Wikidata.¹

Controversies and legal

Criticism

For a brief period in 2003, ARY Digital received criticism upon its airing of a prisoner's derogatory comments against the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC-3) and a video showing balded young girls behind bars begging for mercy. The contempt of court proceedings against the officials of the network were withdrawn after the judge accepted unconditional apologies.

An attempted takeover of BOL Network and BOL News took place in August 2015, carried out by ARY Digital Network CEO Salman Iqbal, who said that the decision was taken in view to provide career protection to media industry and its workers. ARY Group founder Salman Iqbal said that his media group would launch the transmission of the channel within three weeks. However this deal fell through and in September 2015 it was announced that ARY was not taking over BOL.