The ART satellite television network announced that it had obtained concession rights from the International Football Federation (FIFA) to broadcast last Saturday’s dramatic World Cup playoff match between Egypt and Algeria in Sudan next Wednesday.
ART Assistant CEO Mustafa Gomaa said the network would accept offers from any channel wishing to purchase the broadcast rights since "all Arabs have the right to watch the match" on their preferred channels.
"We won’t continue to broadcast exclusively on our channel as Egyptian state television did for the last match," Gomaa said, noting that matches played in Egypt do not automatically grant Egypt the right to monopolize broadcasts. "This is confirmed by the fact that Egyptian television had to purchase broadcast rights from us during the recent under-20 World Cup matches held in Egypt."
Ossama Ezz Eddin, chairman of satellite channel Dream, pointed out that the Dream, Al-Hayat and Modern satellite channels were already negotiating with ART for broadcast rights.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s Anti-Trust Authority (ATA) announced that it had not received any complaints about the claimed broadcast monopoly by Egyptian television of the recent match.
"The announcement by Dream, Al-Hayat and Modern that they were denied broadcast rights does not constitute an official complaint that we should look into," said ATA spokesman Ibrahim Abdel Rehim. "We cannot take any action unless we are specifically asked to."
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
