Dubai: While the Fifa World Cup – which starts on Thursday - will be telecast on beIN Sports package in full high-definition quality, du and etisalat subscribers can only watch the 64 matches if they subscribe to the package separately. Or those who are not du or etisalat subscribers need to take the beIN Sports package separately.
The big question is, will beIN Sports telecast the matches in Spanish?
Both the telecom operators in the UAE told Gulf News that they will be telecasting it in Arabic, English, French and Spanish and they are sticking to it.
But when contacted, a call centre person at beIN Sports headquarters in Qatar said that the matches are to be telecast only in three languages — Arabic, English and French. Earlier, Spanish was also added to the package.
Rasheed at Gulf Ocean Electronics, a dealer for beIN Sports in the UAE, said that the broadcaster will telecast the matches only in Arabic, English and French.
“BeIN Sports keeps on changing the channels. Spanish was included first but as per the list we got, the Spanish language is not included. They may or may not add Spanish in the days to come. It will only be clear closer to the opening date,” he said.
Subscribers who want to take the beIN Sports package separately have to pay Dh790 per month for the Fifa World Cup package for a three-month contract or Dh1,200 for a one-year contract plus Dh80 for the dish, cable and LNB.
beIN Sports, formerly Al Jazeera Sports, is the exclusive media rights licensee for the Middle East and Northern Africa region. German public-service television broadcaster -ZDF - will not be broadcasting the matches unencrypted on the Eutelsat Hot Bird satellite platforms during the tournament.
beIN Sports will not transmit World Cup matches in the existing beIN Sports packages. If subscribers are interested in watching the tournament they need to subscribe to the Fifa World Cup package and these channels will be automatically dropped after the event. beIN Sports has 15 HD channels.
beIN Sports is using the spare capacity in their satellite to broadacast the matches.
Etisalat will be beaming the matches through seven dedicated channels for Dh450 which is a one-time charge only for the world cup matches, and du through five dedicated channels for a one-time charge of Dh440 for the event to be held in Brazil from June 12 to July 13.
The dedicated channels to cover the matches will start transmitting on June 12. If subscribers still get the slate instead of the actual TV signal on June 12 or after, they need to reboot their decoder. To reboot the decoder, they can pull out the power cable from the decoder and plug it in again.
“Etisalat’s eLife customers can be a part of the World Cup this year at no extra cost with new eLife Sports or Premium Packages. For a monthly fee starting at Dh499 per month, customers can subscribe to the new eLife Sports or Premium packages which includes subscription to the Fifa World Cup, along with beIN Sports, AD Sports, eLife On and high-speed internet starting from 20Mbps,” said Rashed Al Abbar, vice-president of home product marketing at etisalat.
“Our customers have been eagerly waiting for the start of the World Cup and we wanted to make their viewing experience as convenient as possible by launching a tailored package one month before the start of the event,” said Fahd Al Hassawi, Chief Executive Officer Commercial at du.
Du’s rewind TV feature will also allow customers to replay up to eight hours of live television, and du TV+ customers can record the matches to watch at their own convenience. This, according to the official, is of significance as most of the matches will be held at rather unearthly hours as per UAE timings because of the time difference.
The earliest kick-off will be 8pm UAE time, followed by matches starting at 11pm, 2am and even 5am. The final will kick off at Rio’s Maracana Stadium from 11pm.
For existing eLife TV customers, there is no need to change receivers and for new customers etisalat will provide an HD box to enjoy these channels. The channels include two channels in Arabic, two in English, two in French and one in Spanish.
To enjoy the World Cup, existing eLife customers can upgrade their subscriptions to the new eLife Sports or Premium package and get an internet speed upgrade as well.
“The eLife ON service that features the ability to watch live streaming TV on iPad, iPhone and Android smartphones of premium sports channels such as Dubai Sports, Abu Dhabi Sports, beIN Sports and Fifa World Cup,” Al Abbar said.
Du customers can subscribe to the beIN Sports Fifa World Cup TV package by calling 04-3905555 while etisalat customers can call any business centre in the UAE and the connection will be fixed within two to three hours.
OSN is not showing the matches as they don’t have the rights and if subscribers want to watch the matches, they need to subscribe to beIN Sports package through a separate decoder.
