Rapid TV News reports that Arab Radio & Television and Al Jazeera Sports have signed a preliminary agreement in Doha recently, whereby ART would transfer the rights and exclusive content of six sports channels to Al Jazeera Sport.

Al Jazeera sports division currently holds rights of major football leagues and is expected to become the exclusive regional rights-holder of next year’s World Cup in South Africa.

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Rapid TVNews reports that the pay-TV merger between Showtime Arabia and rival Orbit was concluded on time at the end of last month, according to reports out of Kuwait on Aug 11. A statement from Kuwait-based Kipco said the agreement was formally wrapped on July 31.The deal was announced last month, although no official valuation was given other than a very vague statement that the merger was worth “billions”. Neither was any information given as to who initiated the “merger”, although it is widely spoken of as a Showtime Arabia initiative. Showtime Arabia had reportedly bought out its Viacom minority partner in its Gulf-DTH operation. Kipco, an investment vehicle ultimately controlled by the Kuwait royal family, already controlled 75.3% of Gulf-DTH.

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