The Growth and Challenges of the Sport Broadcasting Market in the Arab World

Abstract

This chapter focuses on offering an overview of the recent development of free-to-air (FTA) and encrypted TV sport channels in the Arab region. Huge sums of money are invested in the broadcasting of premium sports events and other sport-related programs; in the process, the monopoly over sport broadcasting is shifting from the state-controlled sector, which is informed by political-ideological considerations, to private television networks, which are based on the liberal market values of profit maximization. ART Sports’ former ownership of the exclusive rights to broadcast the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) 2006 World Cup for the Middle East and North Africa, which was much debated and contested, and the quasi-monopoly of Aljazeera Sport over the broadcasting of the 2010 World Cup are illustrative examples of this shift. The chapter reveals, however, that behind the debate around the privatization of the sports broadcasting industry in the Arab world there is an apparent rivalry between state-run and private TV stations for the control of Arab minds and hearts — a rivalry that accompanies the crisis in politics and in the big narratives of pan-Arab ideology. The advance of the sports broadcasting industry in the Arab world has challenged the notion of a state’s territory and sovereignty, as well as the older principle of free access, for Arab viewers, to international (and even to domestic) sport competitions.