The country is fast becoming a global hub for sports and entertainment, and IMG Studios is at the forefront of this transformation, pairing international expertise with local partnerships to enhance productions, grow audiences, and develop homegrown talent across the Kingdom.

The five-year production partnership between the Saudi Pro League, the Saudi Arabian Football Federation, and IMG, which began last year and will run until the 2028/29 season, covers the ROSHN Saudi League, the King’s Cup, and the Saudi Super Cup.

The goal is to deploy remote production capabilities to cover multiple matches across the country simultaneously, providing consistent, high-quality storytelling for a league on the rise.

IMG has also partnered with Riyadh-based production company Alamiya Media to combine local knowledge with global capability, ensuring superior coverage while nurturing production talent on the ground.

This collaboration has expanded the league’s reach, distributing SPL media rights internationally and allowing the Kingdom’s football stars to be watched by fans around the world.

During Matchweek 1 at the end of August, IMG’s young Saudi production team coordinated over 100 flights for nine matches across the country, showcasing the next generation of production managers, producers, and directors ready to lead the industry.

Last season, SPL matches were broadcast in more than 184 countries across 43 platforms, highlighting how IMG’s production expertise is helping build a compelling sports product in the heart of the Middle East.

Efficiency and creativity are key to deploying remote production across a busy match calendar. The partnership aims to implement advanced remote workflows so senior producers can oversee multiple venues in a single day while centralizing quality control and graphics.

This is supported by IMG’s Stockley Park facility in London, one of Europe’s best-connected broadcast hubs, ensuring consistency across cameras, communications, and creative assets.

Consistency is essential for building brand equity, creating new storytelling formats, and connecting stars, clubs, and culture to global audiences.

IMG’s approach extends beyond football, as seen at the Esports World Cup in Riyadh, which featured 2,000 elite players from 100 countries, alongside community tournaments, live music, retro arcades, and creator studios.

IMG enhanced coverage with EWC Spotlight, a custom-built studio show giving fans behind-the-scenes content and celebrity interviews, featuring guests like Stranger Things actor David Harbour, F1 driver Lando Norris, and Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al-Faisal.

EWC Spotlight exemplified how Saudi-based events can reach both core and mainstream audiences worldwide, with broadcasts carried by major partners including beIN, Fox Sports, DAZN, and ITVx, highlighting the importance of locally embedded production teams.

IMG also produces the world feed for the Saudi Cup, the most valuable horse race globally, delivering a “Golden Hour” program blending culture and competition. The broadcast reached over 170 territories via 30+ international broadcasters, with cinematic visuals and graphics that honor the event’s Saudi identity.

Whether in football, esports, or horse racing, IMG Studios’ strategy in Saudi Arabia and the MENA region consistently combines global expertise with local capability, innovates formats to attract new fans, and ensures content reaches international audiences.

Multi-year partnerships across the SPL, EWC, and prestige race days have already laid strong foundations, positioning Saudi Arabia as a global sports and entertainment hub and demonstrating how Vision 2030 is transforming the Kingdom into a center of excellence for world-class productions while developing the next generation of creative and technical talent.

A wave of disinformation spearheaded by accounts linked to the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan) is spreading across social media, falsely claiming that Saudi Arabia has allowed Israel to use its Hamida airbase to strike Houthi rebels in Yemen.

This claim, however, stands in direct contradiction to both the Kingdom’s defense policies and regional geopolitical realities. It’s a desperate attempt to stir regional tensions and provoke public outrage.

Let’s be clear: this claim is not only baseless but reeks of the Brotherhood’s long-standing obsession with vilifying Saudi Arabia under the guise of “defending the Ummah.”

For those with even a faint idea of how geopolitics works in the Gulf, the idea that Riyadh would give its strategic military infrastructure to another country — let alone Israel — to attack a third-party nation is laughable.

Having spent more than a decade in Saudi Arabia, interacting with people from all walks of life—including Houthi Yemenis, legal experts, and policy advisors—I can testify firsthand that the Kingdom’s military and legal doctrine is centered on defense, not aggression. Saudi Arabia does not, and has not, opened its airspace, land, or naval bases to any foreign power to target a third country.

However, during the 1990s, Saudi Arabia sought America’s support to defend its own borders—not to intervene in someone else’s conflict.

During the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, it was Turkey under Tayip Erdogan as Prime Minister that offered its Incirlik Airbase, and Qatar that opened up the Al Udeid Airbase to American forces.

While Ikhwani voices slander Saudi Arabia, they conveniently ignore the documented military cooperation between Pakistan and the United States. During the War on Terror, Pakistan openly provided U.S. forces with military bases, including the Shamsi Airbase, from where drone strikes were launched into Afghanistan and tribal areas, resulting in both militant and civilian casualties.

According to a 2011 report by the New York Times, Pakistan received billions in military aid while facilitating these operations, which included over 400 drone strikes between 2004 and 2011 alone.

But the Brotherhood and their digital foot soldiers stay silent on those truths—because facts aren’t convenient when you’re in the business of political manipulation.

This latest rumor is part of a tired Ikhwani playbook: insert “Israel” into any fabricated headline, link it to Saudi Arabia, and watch the outrage machine spin. But times have changed. The region isn’t buying it anymore.

Israel, meanwhile, has shown remarkable technological resilience in the face of escalating regional threats—whether it’s intercepting a record 300+ drones and missiles during a recent multi-front assault, or sharing its defense innovations with allies who genuinely seek peace and progress.

While Saudi Arabia maintains no formal diplomatic relations with Israel, the Kingdom has always taken a principled stance—favoring stability, peace, and regional cooperation without compromising on the Palestinian cause. Meanwhile, Israel has emerged as a hub for technological innovation, counter-terrorism expertise, and disaster response—all areas in which Gulf nations can learn and cooperate, if and when official channels are established.

Kingdom’s stance has always been principled and transparent—focused on stability, not sensationalism.

And speaking of peace, Saudi Arabia and Iran’s normalization just two days ago saw the signing of multiple bilateral agreements—a move that has notably reduced Houthi attacks on Saudi territory. This diplomatic breakthrough alone dismantles the very premise of the Brotherhood’s conspiracy: if missiles have stopped, what exactly would Israel be striking from Saudi soil?

It’s time to call this what it is: Muslim Brotherhood psychological warfare, meant to fracture unity, incite the uninformed, and derail progress under the pretext of pan-Islamism—a worn-out mask for power politics.

Let’s not be fooled.