Al Jazeera’s BeIN Sport passes one million subscribers

Al Jazeera’s French sports venture BeIN Sport has passed the one million subscribers milestone, according to local reports.

Al Jazeera launched BeIN Sport 1 on June 1, with BeIN Sport 2 following on July 28. President Nasser al-Khelaïfi told financial daily Les Echos that he thought setting a target of two million would be too high, but that the broadcaster would continue to build its business as before, and that he expected several hundred thousand more subscribers to sign up over the next six months.

He said that it would take four or five years to reach breakeven, and added that the company’s resources were not unlimited, despite the significant sums spent on acquiring rights to date.