Al Jazeera Sport is set to launch two channels in France in June. The broadcaster is also bidding for the Euro 2012 football rights.
Last year, Al Jazeera turned pout to be the surprise bidder for the live rights of the French premier football league, the Ligue 1. The broadcaster won the rights to two matches a week of the L1, which will start on August 3.
Al Jazeera also acquired the rights to the Champions League matches of which it will broadcast two matches on every day the games are played. The Ligue 1 games are split between Canal+ and Al Jazeera from the 2012 season. Until now, Canal+ held the exclusive rights.
The broadcaster is now also bidding for the live rights to the Euro 2012 and Euro 2016 games. The results of this tender will be known any moment now.
Talking to the French website LepParisien.fr, Al Jazeera Sport France’s managing director Charles Biétry said that the talks with Orange to acquire its sports channels were ended with no result. He also said that rumours that Al Jazeera was interested in buying Eurosport were not true.
The two new sports channels will be distributed by as many platforms as possible, but no contracts have been signed so far. They will include cable, IPTV and possibly CanalSat.
The subscription price for the new channels has not been set, but will be between €20 and €25 monthly. The two channels will not only broadcast football, but will include all kinds of sports in their programming.
