The media cluster proper: broadcasters, agencies and publishers with staff on the ground. Freelancers and one-person studios get the same industry credibility far cheaper in SHAMS or Creative City — DMC earns its price when you hire locally.
The numbers
Licence fromAED 17,000
Visa quotascales with office size
Activitiesmedia/marketing
Officerequired (per office size)
Setup time10–14 business days
LAST VERIFIED: 21 JUL 2026 · The authority publishes no public tariff — figure is a market-indicative estimate, confirmed in writing on application.
Who Dubai Media City is really for
Dubai Media City sits inside TECOM's Al Sufouh cluster, next door to Dubai Internet City and Dubai Knowledge Park — a deliberately curated address for broadcasters, advertising and PR agencies, production houses and publishers that keep staff in Dubai. The value is the neighbourhood and the client-facing weight of a "Dubai Media City" trade licence, not the paperwork behind it.If you invoice regional brands, pitch for retainers, or want to sit beside the media buyers and networks already in the cluster, the AED 17,000 headline is a fair entry point. If you are a solo creator, a freelancer or a two-person studio working remotely, you are paying cluster rent for prestige you can rent far cheaper elsewhere — which is exactly why the intro above points to SHAMS and Creative City.
What the AED 17,000 licence does and does not cover
The AED 17,000 figure is the media licence itself. It does not include the thing that makes DMC expensive: a mandatory physical office. This is not a flexi-desk zone — the licence is tied to leased space in the cluster, so your real first-year outlay is licence plus office plus establishment card plus per-visa costs. Budget the office line first, because it drives everything else.
Cost line
What it is
Media licence
From AED 17,000
Office
Mandatory, priced by size — from a business-centre unit to a full fit-out
Establishment card
Annual, one per company
Visas
Per person; quota set by office size
Visas and office are one decision, not two
DMC ties your visa allocation to the square metres you lease — there is no flat "X visas per licence" number here. A small serviced unit supports a handful of visas; a growing agency leases more space to unlock more. That is the honest trade-off of a hire-locally zone: headcount and office have to be planned together from day one.Work through the visa mechanics before committing to a unit size, and model the true first-year figure with the setup-cost calculator rather than the headline licence alone.
DMC vs the cheaper media licences — and the tax point
Against SHAMS (from AED 5,750, no office required) or twofour54 in Abu Dhabi (from AED 10,000, with production rebates), DMC is the premium option — and the premium buys the address and the local team, not a wider activity list. Choose it when the "Dubai Media City" name and a physical presence in the cluster are part of your commercial pitch.
Setting up in Dubai Media City
01
Activity & name
Pick licensed activities and reserve a trade name. Activity choice drives approvals, banking and whether your income can be QFZP-qualifying.
02
Documents & KYC
Passports, application forms and a clean source-of-funds story. No local sponsor is needed — free zone companies are 100% foreign-owned.
03
Licence & establishment card
The zone issues your licence (typically 10–14 business days), then the immigration establishment card that unlocks visa processing.
04
Visas & bank account
Entry permit, medical, Emirates ID for each visa holder; corporate account opening runs in parallel — this is usually the slowest step.
Straight answers
How much does a Dubai Media City licence cost?
The media licence starts from AED 17,000. That figure excludes the mandatory office, the establishment card and per-visa costs, so budget the office line first when you model the true first-year total.
Does Dubai Media City require a physical office?
Yes. DMC is not a flexi-desk zone — the licence is tied to leased space in the cluster, and that lease drives both your cost and your visa quota.
How many visas can I get with a Dubai Media City licence?
There is no fixed cap. Your allocation is set by the size of the office you lease, so headcount and space are one decision — lease more to unlock more visas.
Is Dubai Media City worth it versus SHAMS?
DMC costs more for the address and a local team presence, not for wider activities. Solo or remote media businesses get the same industry credibility far cheaper in SHAMS or Creative City.
Is the “from AED 17,000” price real?
It is the official entry-tier licence figure (re-verified against the zone tariff before every update) — without visas, establishment card or add-ons. Our estimate above shows a realistic first-year floor; anything quoted below it usually hides a fee.
Can this company do business on the UAE mainland?
A free zone licence covers business inside the zone and abroad. Selling onshore generally needs a mainland distributor, a branch, or a dual-licence arrangement where offered — we flag which applies before you commit.
Does 0% corporate tax apply here?
Free zone companies pay 0% only on qualifying income under the QFZP regime — substance, audited accounts and de-minimis limits included. Otherwise the standard 9% above AED 375k applies. We model this in the corporate tax calculator.
Tell us what you're building.
We reply with numbers — a line-by-line setup estimate for your case. Not a call script, not a brochure.