• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Qatar: Al-Jazeera to Launch Sport Channels

Posted on: Wednesday, 17 August 2005, 09:00 CDT

Text of report in English by Qatari newspaper The Peninsula website on 17 August

Doha: On 27 August , the Doha-based Al-Jazeera TV network will launch two new round-the-clock sports channels offering live coverage of prime tournaments held around the world and other exclusive serials. These channels, known as Al-Jazeera Sports Plus- 1 and Al-Jazeera Sports Plus-2 will be available for a nominal annual subscription on Direct-To-Home satellite TV systems.

At a press conference yesterday, Ayman Jaidah, General Manager, Al-Jazeera Network disclosed the new channels were being launched to offer viewers in the Arab region an improved and wider coverage of sports events held around the world. Al-Jazeera currently has two sports channels, which he said, were not sufficient to offer live coverage of all events and sports related news and documentaries. In addition, the network also wanted to widen its coverage of such events, especially popular ones such as major football leagues, basketball tournaments and others.

While the existing Al-Jazeera sports channels will remain Free- To-Air, the new ones will be available on a variety of platforms. Viewers can opt to buy a 25 dollar decryption card for their DTH systems which will offer the two channels for one year.

Alternatively, they can buy a Conditional Access Module (CAM) for their DTH receivers for 50 dollars which will offer these two channels, along with some others from the Arab Radio and TV (ART) network.

Al-Jazeera had signed an agreement with the Dubai-based firm, Multichoice for distribution of the signals of these two channels worldwide, he disclosed. In Egypt however, the two paid channels can be subscribed from C&E, he added.

The two premium channels, whose signals will be encrypted, will offer live coverage of premium sports events such as the Spanish league football and others.

Earlier, these were available free on either of the two Al- Jazeera sports channels. He disclosed that the network had to encrypt the signals to meet certain international legal and technical requirements.

According to industry sources, the Al-Jazeera network had to encrypt signals of its sports channels to avoid clash of interests with certain Western channel providers from losing revenue on live coverage of premium sports events.

While such live coverage was offered free by Al-Jazeera to viewers in the Arab world, its signals via the Nilesat and Arabsat constellations spilled over into certain Western countries, where viewers could watch such tournaments free instead of paying the local providers. In most Western countries, viewers have to pay stiff fees to watch such live coverage.

Source: BBC Monitoring Media

More News in this Category