Advertising spots during Euro 2012 coverage on Al Jazeera’s French pay-television sports channel BeIN Sport 1 are being offered for as little as €500 ($655), a tiny fraction of the rates charged by the country’s commercial broadcasters for the same event.
L’Equipe reported that a sales document from TF1 Publicité, which is selling spots on behalf of Al Jazeera’s new sports channels in France, had revealed that packages of 20 30-second advertising spots were being offered for a fixed price of €10,000 during the competition on the BeIN Sport 1 channel. TF1 Publicité is the advertising sales division of commercial broadcaster TF1.
The report drew comparisons with the €150,000 per 30 seconds being charged by commercial broadcaster M6 for a spot during half-time of the Euro 2012 match France v Sweden on June 19.
Stéphane Devergies, director of TF1 Publicité’s sports division, countered that the prices were comparable to those offered on behalf of pan-European sports broadcaster Eurosport and even “a little more expensive.” TF1 Publicité also looks after French advertising sales for the Eurosport and Eurosport 2 channels.
Al Jazeera has acquired pay-television rights for all matches in Euro 2012 and Euro 2016 and plans to show five daily magazine programmes to support live coverage of all 31 games.
The broadcaster’s wider schedule has just been unveiled. From next season BeIN Sport 1 will offer blanket live sports coverage every Saturday from 2pm until midnight. The live coverage will include France’s top football division, Ligue 1, Spain’s La Liga and live rugby league from the UK and France’s Super League tournament.
During the week, BeIN Sport 1 will show fitness programming in the mid-to-late-mornings, athletics, boxing and football in the evenings and coverage of NBA basketball and South American football from 11pm until the early hours.
BeIN Sport 1 will launch in June 1. BeIN Sport 2 is due to launch on August 10.
Al Jazeera has agreed a carriage deal for its channels with IPTV operator Free.
Deals have also been sealed with telecommunications companies Orange and Bouygues and talks with the SFR telco were also likely to result in a deal, according to the Satellifax website. Discussions with cable operator Numéricâble and satellite and digital-terrestrial television platform CanalSat are said to be proving more difficult.