Another guest post from The National's media maven, Keach Hagey:
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Rumors
have been swirling around the Middle East media water cooler for a
while now that the two pay-TV players that weren't a part of this
summer's merger between Orbit and Showtime -- that is, Arab Radio and
Television (ART) and Al Jazeera Sports -- are up to some kind of
merging of their own.
"Rapid
TV News understands that the talks between Al Jazeera and pay-TV
operator ART have been going on for some 2 months. A deal was expected
to be signed this past weekend. Terms have not been revealed but are
said to be less than the $2bn we reported on October 29. "Only Sheikh
Salah Kamel, his family [some members of which work at ART] and very
senior executives know the full terms," said a Rapid TV News source."
Nawaf Tamimi, the head of public relations at ART, said there had been no rights deal.
"This
has been around for the last three weeks, people putting rumors into
the press," he said. "Yes, we are in talks with Al Jazeera, but this is
related to so many issues, such as exchanging content, set top box
technology and putting our efforts together to try to fight piracy. So
there is talk, but it is not about selling rights. Why should we sell
our library?"
ART
has an array of sports broadcast rights, most notably the FIFA World
Cup 2010 rights for the region. Al Jazeera holds the UEFA European
Championship rights until 2016, the Champions League, Europa League and
the Italian, French, Spanish, German, Argentinean, Brazilian A and
Dutch leagues.
While
there has been speculation for some time that ART's owner, Sheikh Saleh
Kamel, the Saudi billionaire, might pull out of the expensive sports
broadcast rights game, some industry experts believe the deal is more
likely to be about teaming up on smart card technology. Stay tuned.
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