The new beIN Sport USA is the new home for Serie A and La Liga telecasts in the United States, and many soccer fans around the country won’t be able to watch, reports Ronald Blum. Rights to those league games, as well as France’s League 1 and England’s League Championship, are now owned by the Al-Jazeera Sport Media Network and will be available inabout 8 million homes to viewers of DirecTV and DISH Network. Getting its new network on cable systems such as Comcast and TimeWarner is currently the primary objective.
“The ratings aregoing to be so low that they will be almost unmeasurable,” said Marc Ganis of the Chicago-based Sports Corp. Ltd., consulting firm. “Considering the push that European soccer ismaking in the United States, taking additional money and losing exposure becomes fools’ gold. They need to have a long-term strategy, not short-term.”
BeIN Sport USA managing directorYousef Al Obaidly said, “There will be more announcements coming soon. We are in a discussion with all the cable operators. Hopefully, we can reach an agreement so we can keepeveryone happy.”
BeIN Sport announced it will be carried on DirecTV’s sports tier in high and standard definition and beIN Sport en Espanol will be distributed on DirecTV Mas in standarddefinition. It said DISH Network will televise beIN Sport on its America’s Top 250 and DISHLatino packages.