Up to 11 new sports channels that will be based in Egypt and funded by Saudi Arabia are set to be launched in the coming weeks and months, according to Muflih Al-Hafatah, the chairman of the Saudi Media City complex.
According to the Arab News website, the channels will be launched under the PBS Sport name. The first channel will launch as a free-to-air service on Arabsat next week, with Al-Hafatah saying on Twitter that five more channels would be launched before the start of the new football season, before the number of channels “gradually” increases to 11.
The channels will be based in Cairo, with Al-Hafatah saying that they will be “Egyptian with 100-per-cent Saudi capital.”
He added: “[The] new channels will be free as much as possible in accordance with what international laws permit.” He added that if encryption is required, the prices will be affordable.
German news agency DPA said that a number of countries across the Middle East, including Algeria, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Oman and the UAE, as well as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, were supporting the launch of the sports channels.