French satellite and digital-terrestrial television platform CanalSat has agreed a carriage deal with beIN Sport, Al Jazeera’s new pay-television operation in France.
BeIN Sport 1, which launched on June 1, has been made available immediately to all CanalSat subscribers, while sister channel beIN Sport 2 will be available from its launch date of July 28.
The carriage deal was struck after more than two months of negotiations between the parties. Talks were reportedly complicated due to the rivalry between Al Jazeera and CanalSat’s parent company, Canal Plus, which has lost a number of broadcast rights to the beIN Sport channels.
In April, French newspaper La Tribune said that Al Jazeera had proposed terms to CanalSat that were more onerous than the pay-television broadcaster’s revenue-sharing deals with its other distribution partners.
The terms of the agreement have not been disclosed, but neIN Sport 1 is now available on channel 97 on CanalSat, and beIN Sport 2 will be available on channel 98.
According to French newspaper Le Figaro, beIN Sport, which now has carriage deals with all of the major platform operators in France, attracted between 350,000 and 400,000 subscribers within three weeks of launching on June 1.