Lebanon Informed beIN Sports Won't Give TL Rights to Air World Cup
State-owned Tele Liban will not be granted the rights to broadcast the Brazil-hosted 2014 FIFA World Cup which kicks off on Thursday, according to Sports and Youth Minister Abdul Muttaleb Hennawi.
The minister announced Wednesday that he has received an email from the beIN Sports TV network in which it informed him that “TL will not be given the exclusive rights to air World Cup matches” in Lebanon.
beIN Sports is a global network of sports channels jointly owned and operated by Qatari Sports Investments, an affiliate of Al-Jazeera Media Networks.
In the wake of the development, Hennawi said he telephoned Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq, currently on a visit to Qatar, to inform him of the content of the email he had received.
Mashnouq for his part called Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser al-Thani, “who promised to help Lebanon obtain the broadcasting rights.”
Hennawi said the Qatari premier is waiting for beIN Sports chairman Nasser al-Kharafi to return to Kuwait from a foreign trip to discuss the issue with him and take a final decision.
Meanwhile, Hassan Zein, executive director of SAMA, the sole agent of BeIN Sports in Lebanon, told LBCI television that his firm is “technologically and logistically prepared” for the World Cup.
He noted that citizens and residents in Lebanon can purchase SAMA receiver cards from the company's authorized agents in all Lebanese regions or directly from the company's headquarters and website.
The ambiguity over broadcasting rights threatens to deprive a lot of soccer fans of watching the much anticipated games.
In the absence of laws regulating the telecommunications sector, most Lebanese get their subscriptions from mostly illegal cable companies that operate through piracy and charge about LBP 20,000 ($13) a month.
The World Cup has always been an important event for Lebanon and its citizens -- even during the 1975-1990 civil war when militiamen would lay down their weapons to watch the matches.
Y.R.
S.D.B.
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