beIN Sport spends €330m in TV rights

Pascale Paoli-Lebailly | 15-07-2012

Qatar’s channels beIN Sport 1 and 2 have spent €330 million in TV rights and acquired 1,600 matches per year.

Talking at a press lunch this week in Paris, editorial director Charles Bietry has stressed the channels’ financial spendings were carefully measured and controlled and that Al Jazeera’s sport channels were not competitors to Canal+.

"We need to break even in four or five years and each euro spent has to be justified," he commented, making the point that Qatar doesn’t spend money in an irrational way, as often said by the French TV market. He also compared the €150 million spent for eight matches of French League 1 with the €420 million Canal+ poured into two matches.

Even if beIN Sport doesn’t consider Canal+ as a challenger, both are likely to fight over the next Premier League call for bids, as Canal + currently owns the French rights to the English championship.

Coming back on the first subscribing figures that leaked in the press one month after the launch of beIN Sport 1, Bietry didn’t confirm the figure of 400,000 subs released by Le Figaro. He just said recruiting 400,000 subscribers over one year would be considered a failure.