Turkish TV in the UK at a glance
- Public broadcaster
- TRT: the tabii streaming platform and the TRT Haber news app, both listed on the UK App Store
- Commercial broadcasters
- Official apps such as atv (Turkuvaz) are listed in the UK store; content in the UK varies
- TV licence
- Needed in the UK to watch any channel live, including Turkish channels
- Time difference
- Türkiye is 3 hours ahead of the UK in winter, 2 in summer
- Watch out for
- Apps and sellers offering every Turkish channel and all the football for a small fee
App listings checked on the UK App Store in September 2026. A listing doesn’t guarantee that every programme or live channel is available in the UK.
Legal ways to watch Turkish TV in the UK
TRT and tabii
TRT (Türkiye Radyo ve Televizyon Kurumu) is Türkiye’s public broadcaster. In May 2023 it announced tabii, an international streaming platform for its series, films and originals, with a global roll-out and apps in several languages. The tabii app, published by TRT, is listed on the UK App Store, as is the TRT Haber news app.
Inside Türkiye, tabii is free. Outside it, TRT launched the service through partner platforms with a subscription, so check what the app offers UK users, and the price, before signing up.
Commercial broadcasters’ apps
Some Turkish commercial broadcasters publish official apps in the UK store, for example atv from Turkuvaz. These usually carry series episodes and clips, and sometimes live channels, but what’s available outside Türkiye depends on each programme’s rights. Always check the publisher’s name in the store listing: apps named after Turkish channels are often published by someone else.
Sport
Turkish football and other sport are sold separately in each country. Even an official Turkish app may block live matches in the UK because another broadcaster holds the UK rights. Services that promise every Turkish match in the UK for a few pounds are almost certainly unlicensed.
You still need a UK TV licence
UK law doesn’t distinguish by country or language. According to TV Licensing, you need a licence to watch or record live TV on any channel, whether it’s broadcast or streamed, including channels from outside the UK. On-demand viewing (other than BBC iPlayer) doesn’t need one. See IPTV and the TV licence.
Setting up Turkish channels in an IPTV player
If you use a licensed service that includes Turkish channels, a few settings make a difference:
- Guide times. Türkiye has stayed on UTC+3 all year since 2016. It’s three hours ahead of the UK in winter and two in summer. A guide that’s out by exactly an hour after the clocks change usually needs a time-shift setting in the player; our EPG offset calculator works it out, and EPG not loading covers empty guides.
- Audio and subtitles. Some films and series carry more than one audio track or subtitle language. Players let you switch tracks during playback; see no sound on IPTV if a channel plays silently, which is often an audio format issue.
- Characters. Turkish letters such as ğ, ş and ı display correctly in modern players. If they show as boxes or question marks, the guide file or playlist has an encoding problem; see editing an M3U playlist.
Before you pay for Turkish channels
- Start with the official apps, most of which you can try free.
- Check who you’re paying: a registered business with terms and a refund policy.
- Be sceptical of “all Turkish channels plus all football” for a small fee. Rights to those channels in the UK are expensive and split between broadcasters.
For the wider legal picture, see is IPTV legal?.
More language guides: Arabic TV in the UK, Polish TV in the UK and all languages.