UEFA Champions League

Al Jazeera Sport acquires Champions League media rights packages in France

editor — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 03:34:22 -0800

Al Jazeera Sport has acquired four of the five UEFA Champions League media rights packages in France. According to the terms of the deal, the Qatar-based broadcaster has the pay-TV, mobile and online TV rights from 2012 to 2015.

"UEFA welcomes the opportunity to develop a partnership with Al-Jazeera in France. We highly value their production expertise and commitment towards the UEFA Champions League in the Middle East and North Africa and we look forward to being part of their channel development in France. The level of interest in the UEFA Champions League rights confirms the continuing strength of the competition", said a UEFA representative in a statement.

Ipsos, official research partner for UEFA and Football World Cup 2010 with Al Jazeera Sports

editor — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 14:56:03 -0700

Ipsos MediaCT, one of Middle East and Africa's largest media research agencies, providing the region with specialized research analysts for high value-added analytical data and market insight, through qualitative media research and monitoring, has secured the viewership research for football games during UEFA Champions League and the World Cup.

Securing this position as the sports viewership researcher, Ipsos will partner Al Jazeera Sports Plus, whom has the rights to air the live football matches on its Plus Channels. The collaboration was founded when Al Jazeera Sports Plus wanted to conduct 'Day After Recall' analysis to observe the viewership of the matches and required a research associate that could provide data in an accurate and fast method.

The new partnership for the UEFA Champions League and Football World Cup will see a collaboration of work establish in more than 10 countries across the region and conducting more than a 100 interviews a day in each country. Ipsos will be reporting results within 2 days, which is a challenging endeavor, however the company is known to love and successfully manage challenges like these.

Day After Recalls (DARs) will be conducted the day following airing of each live match and interviews will be performed with random persons in KSA, UAE, Kuwait, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and Iran. Ipsos MediaCT will conduct 42 DARs during the UEFA Champions League and World Cup.

Pehla and Firstnet bouquets to add Al Jazeera Sports channels +1 to +8

editor — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 03:26:11 -0800

Subscribers of Pehla Gold and Firstnet Premium will now be able to watch sports content on Al Jazeera Sports (AJS) channels +1 to +8 following their inclusion in the pay television packages, according to an announcement by Arab Radio and Television (ART), the pay television platform in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region.

Pehla Gold and Firstnet Premium subscribers will get the AJS package as part of their current subscription at no extra cost.

"We are very pleased with the addition of Al Jazeera Sports (AJS) Channels on the Pehla and Firstnet bouquets. The inclusion of the eight channels in our bouquets fits well with our vision of bringing the best in sporting action from across the world to our viewers. We are especially pleased that the coverage of football, the most popular game in the region, will increase manifold, given the extensive AJS football broadcasting portfolio," said Eng. Abed Alaziz Yamani, CEO of Arab Media Corporation AMC.

ADD has also launched a new digital decoder which is equipped with a user friendly interface with modern technology which is now available to our subscribers. The new Connect digital receiver will be offered at no extra cost to Pehla Gold, Pehla Silver and Firstnet Premium subscribers with a 6 or 12-month subscription.

The addition of Al Jazeera Sports to Pehla and Firstnet bouquets offers subscribers the best of the sports like UEFA Champions League, Europa League, Euro Cup, and several football national league championships like the Italian Football Serie A, Spanish La Liga besides the African Cup of Nations and the African Champions League.

This step re affirms the positioning of ADD as the largets pay TV platform management company in the region.

ART agrees to transfer rights of 6 sports channels to Al Jazeera

editor — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:54:36 -0800

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.

Al Jazeera breaks Arab television taboo, showing Israeli team in Champions League match

editor — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:06:06 -0700

The Al Jazeera Sport satellite channel last week broke a long established taboo by broadcasting a football match featuring an Israeli team on Arab television for the first time. The UEFA Champions League match between Israeli champions Maccabi Haifa and Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich was aired on the Qatar-based channel with English commentary.

Al Jazeera has obtained rights to televise Champions League matches in Arabic-speaking countries. Until last year Saudi-owned ART held the rights to broadcast Europe's premier club football competition but ART never aired a game involving an Israeli team.

Al Jazeera wins rights to air UEFA Champions League

editor — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:28:31 -0800

Al Jazeera Sports has won exclusive broadcast rights to UEFA Champions League matches across the Middle East and North Africa for a period of four years, dealing a blow to ART who held these rights in previous years.

The Doha-based channel beat off competition from ART, Orbit, Showtime and Abu Dhabi to secure the deal. The bid figure was not revealed.

The agreement includes rights to the quarter, semi and final UEFA Cup matches, the UEFA Super Cup and Internet and mobile rights. Live broadcast of the Champions League and the UEFA Cup will run from 2009 to 2012. The channel is expected to sub-licence live matches to a number of free-to-air broadcasters across the region.

“This is a major development for us. Right now, we have about one million subscribers. We are looking at a figure of three million subscribers in the next two years”, said General manager of Al Jazeera Sport Ayman Jadah. The channel is working on providing English commentary during matches, Jadah added.