After all the hype surrounding his US$200m deal to play football in Saudi Arabia, Cristiano Ronaldo finally made his debut for Saudi Pro League side Al-Nassr at the weekend – starting with a 1-0 victory over Ettifaq. Ahead of the fixture, SPL rights agency IMG secured a run of TV deals – underlining the enduring […]
Middle Eastern pan-regional broadcaster and streamer MBC Group is working with HSBC Holdings and JPMorgan Chase on an IPO. Details about valuation and scope are sketchy at this stage, but a public listing could come as early as next year. Currently, MBC is 60% owned by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with the balance in […]
Middle East broadcaster MBC Group has opened a new headquarters in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. The move to Saudi Arabia marks a key change for the Saudi-owned group, which was founded in the UK and has been based in Dubai in the UAE since 2002. The move from Dubai comes against the backdrop of a […]
Long-serving Arabsat CEO Khalid bin Ahmed Balkheyour has resigned and will be replaced as head of the Saudi Arabia-based satellite operator by Badr bin Nasser Al-Suwaidan, currently CTO. Arabsat’s board meeting last week selected Haitham Al-Ohali, Vice Minister at Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as its new chairman, […]
Qatar-based BeIN Media has tentatively welcomed Saudi Arabia’s decision to end its blockade of Qatar but noted that the Saudi government has not yet addressed the ongoing permanent ban on BeIN Sports in Saudi Arabia. The ban on the sports service has meant that the English Premier League, among other high-profile sports, has not been […]
The English Premier League and beIN Media Group have struck a new rights deal that will see beIN Sports be the Premier League’s official broadcast partner in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) until 2025. The deal for the 2022-25 rights cycle means beIN Sports can broadcast all 380 matches live in each season across […]
The TV business in the Middle East and North Africa region faces big changes over the course of next year as satellite pay TV operators switch to offering OTT services to take on cord cutting, sports rights holders move to selling rights on a country-by-country basis and OTT providers start to invest significant amounts in […]
The sparring between Qatar and Saudi Arabia has taken a new turn, with the latter permanently banning broadcaster beIN Sports from the Kingdom. The move comes as the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia – chaired by crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman – looks to acquire Premier League club Newcastle United. The Qatar-based beIN […]
The Saudi government has reportedly entered into talks with Germany’s Bundesliga in an attempt to beat Qatar’s beIN Sports to the league’s broadcast rights across the Middle East. According to the Financial Times, beIN Sports has been in exclusive talks with the Bundesliga to renew its US$250 million five-year deal which ends this summer, but […]
Saudi Arabia remains “a centre of piracy”, according to a submission by the English Premier League for the US Trade Representative’s Annual Report, and the Premier league faces the “insurmountable” obstacle of an obstructive legal system in pursuing civil action. The Premier League’s submission to the 202 Special 301 Report, which placed Saudi Arabia on […]
ICYMI: Amazon launches QLED TV range in UK, Germany and Mexico as it passes 200m milestone digitaltveurope.com/2023/03/23/ama… https://t.co/woMxE1FQyV
23 March 2023 @ 22:00:01 UTC
ICYMI: @netflix reportedly passes one million ad-supported subs digitaltveurope.com/2023/03/23/net… https://t.co/Dtw7EJXBEi
23 March 2023 @ 21:00:01 UTC
.@TF1: free entertainment that promotes French culture to compete with streamers digitaltveurope.com/2023/03/23/tf1… https://t.co/EoVbkezvSx
23 March 2023 @ 20:00:00 UTC
.@zattoo adds three new FAST channels from Mainstream Media digitaltveurope.com/2023/03/23/zat…
23 March 2023 @ 19:00:00 UTC
Pay-TV subscribers in Eastern Europe is to fall by 8m by 2028 digitaltveurope.com/2023/03/23/pay… https://t.co/iWObUAcAu2
23 March 2023 @ 18:00:01 UTC
