The beIN SPORTS group stopped broadcasting on January 8th, following a disagreement with Cable Network Egypt (CNE), owned by ERTU (the Egyptian Radio and Television Union). The Qatari pay channel reported on its Facebook page that the black-out was due to “CNE’s refusal to accept reasonable commercial terms.”
The situation between beIN SPORTS and Egypt is particularly tense since diplomatic relations between Cairo and Qatar were broken in June 2017. In addition the Egyptian courts fined the group €19 million last March for “violating the law on the principle of competition.”
The channels came back on air a day later. In a statement the group said: “beIN Sports is pleased to announce the conclusion of an agreement with CNE for carrying beIN on its network as from January 9th. We are delighted that Egyptian fans can once again access the world’s best sporting events.”
The Qatari pay channel holds the rights to CAN 2019, the African Cup of Nations, which will be held in Egypt in June and July.
Sources: https://www.lorientlejour.com, Satellifax, https://www.lesiteinfo.com
