Al Jazeera-owned pay-television broadcaster beIN Sport is set to launch in the Australian market, according to the Australian.
Citing local industry executives, the newspaper said that Al Jazeera is preparing to launch an Australian version of beIN Sport early next year after securing the broadcast rights to Italian Serie A top-tier football.
The Serie A deal comes after pay-television broadcaster Fox Sports last month said that it had acquired the exclusive Australian rights to the Spanish Liga and Serie A for the next two seasons.
The agreement comprised the 2013-14 and 2014-15 campaigns, but the Serie A part of the deal has now collapsed.
The Australian said that the Serie A rights had already been sold as part of a large multi-territory deal to a broadcaster thought to be Al Jazeera.
Fox Sports chief executive Patrick Delany said it was “very uncommon” for rights disputes to occur in this way, and attributed the confusion to a “mix up at their end”. Fox will retain its two-year deal for Spanish Liga rights, under the terms of the original contract.
BeIN Sport launched in the Philippines last week, extending the broadcaster’s development in Asia following a launch in Indonesia in July. BeIN Sport will launch in Hong Kong on November 1.