The Qatari beIN Media Group, a subsidiary of Al Jazeera, announced the imminent launch in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) of 24 new HD channels on its pay-TV platform, showing films, entertainment and youth programmes. Four of the channels have been available since November 1st : two beIN Movies channels and two beIN Max channels, all available on the Eutelsat 25B satellite.
They are added to beIN Sport, the sports channels already in place. Among the channels which will enrich the beIN bouquet over the coming months are Fox HD, Fox Movies HD, the National Geographic Channel, NatGeo Wild, NatGeo, France 24 and BBC Arabiya. A press release explained that beIN wants to offer the most “complete” bouquet in the region.
This development will allow beIN to compete with the Emirati Group OSN, which has contracts with the major American studios and media (Warner, Disney, Sony, ESPN) offering content on its pay-TV bouquet. The beIN Media Group, which bought the Turkish bouquet Digitürk last July, has already signed a two-year agreement with the French Prime Entertainment Group (PEG) to purchase 640 episodes of PEG-produced series (“Hollywood On Set”, “Ultimate Countdown”), which will be broadcast in Arabic, French and English across all the channels.
For those already subscribing to beIN Sports, the new channels will be free until the end of the year. After that, access to the bouquet will cost between 10 and 30 dollars a month (between 9 and 27 euros).
Sources : Advanced Television, Media Sportif, Satellifax
