Lebanon’s World Cup 'crisis'

Another crisis has been added to the many Lebanese crises. However, this time it is about the fact that a large segment of the Lebanese people will not be able to watch the World Cup soccer matches. The story began a few weeks ago, when it became clear that the Qatari company Sama had been granted the exclusive rights to broadcast the World Cup games in the Middle East, through the beIN Sports TV channel, previously known as Al-Jazeera Sports. So far, everything seemed normal. Nevertheless, things do not remain simple in Lebanon, where there is a widespread phenomenon called satellite piracy, run by cable distributors in various Lebanese neighborhoods.

These are groups of people who work outside the framework of any law or formal regulation. They pick up the transmission of satellite channels and wire them to homes, in exchange for the small amount of about $10 per month for every subscriber. It should be noted in this context that some broadcasting rights owners have previously demanded that the Lebanese authorities take measures and put an end to this piracy, but to no avail.

However, the right to broadcast the World Cup matches is another story, as the amount of money that has been paid for this right is fairly considerable. The owners of these broadcasting rights would not have allowed Lebanese cable distributors to benefit from this opportunity, especially since figures show that more than half a million Lebanese subscribers, whether households, shops or workplaces, are provided with pirated services.

Therefore, on May 21, Sama was quick to announce it had the exclusive rights to broadcasting the games, and that it would encrypt broadcasting and impose a fee of $200 for households and a larger fee for shops and restaurants in return for a special card from the company that would allow the broadcast of the soccer matches.