Al-Jazeera Sports to cover Les Catalans

[ParraEelsNRL]

http://www.lindependant.fr/2012/02/...a-les-matches-des-dragons-catalans,115714.php

Exclusive The Independent Al-Jazeera broadcast the matches of the Catalans Dragons

EXCLUSIVE THE INDEPENDENT- Al-Jazeera Sports, Future TV channel run by Charles Bietry, broadcast in France, from this summer, the Super League matches, especially the Catalans Dragons.
An information had unveiled the Independent In its issue of January 24. The agreement, him, was signed last night. Al-Jazeera "will make rugby league one of the main thrusts of its two chains" told The Independent, Charles Bietry.
All details of this agreement and the exclusive interview with Charles Bietry to read in our edition of Thursday, February 9, 2012.

I read at another forum they might be going after the NRL rights as well to show.

 

[langpark]

Good news. Is this version of the channel only broadcast in parts of France though?

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

Good news. Is this version of the channel only broadcast in parts of France though?

No, I think this is a nation wide channel, they just got the rights to the champions league or something big like that as well, so there is no way football/soccer would sell their rights to a regional TV station.

I read a few weeks ago that they are considering taking this channel to at least 5 continents. Lets hope Australia is one of them if they do, that'll really put the wind up Fox Sports and their monopoly of sports out here.

This station shows RL in the Middle East and has for a while now.

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Jazeera_Sports

Aljazeera Sport in France

2011 was the year which aljazeera sports owned the rights of broadcasting some of the french league matches inside France and full marketing rights for the french league outside France.
Monday 5 December 2011 UEFA announced on its website that Aljazeera Sport awarded media rights in France for UEFA Champions Leage 2012-15. according to UEFA Website, Each season al-Jazeera Sport will broadcast 133 matches live across its television channels, internet and mobile services. The broadcaster has also committed to significant pre-match preview programming and highlights on both UEFA Champions League matchnights.[2]

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

Live soccer on their website right now.

http://www.en.aljazeerasport.tv/

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

http://brl-tv.blog.leparisien.fr/ar...ce-signe-les-dragons-catalans-et-la-supe.html

Al Jazeera Sport France sign the Catalans Dragons Super League and Australian Rugby League
Al Jazeera Sport France continues her shopping in the market for broadcasting rights. The French subsidiary of the Middle East has signed for three years where rugby league Catalans Dragons, engaged in the Stobart Super League. This truly European club championship has 14 teams: 13 British and Dragons. Anecdotally, the formation close to the heart of Pierre Fulla evolves Brutus Stadium in Perpignan. On the other hand, Charles Bietry won the right to broadcast the championship of Australian rugby league for 3 years

 

[RedVee]

Very good.

 

[The Daddy2]

According to this interview it appears as though a fee was paid, some very solid and positive news, he says he wants to promote Rugby League next to Soccer as their two biggest sports, and they'll be a magazine show and extra cameras at games...very positive and a milestone for the sport in France.

See below for a translation of the interview with Charles Bietry.

In June (or July) the next Catalans Dragons will switch into another world. Since he bought a part of the rights of French football for Al-Jazeera, last summer (see below), Charles Bietry is the 'buzz'. The media world is in turmoil and awaits the arrival of the chain of Qatar on French screens. And Catalans Dragons will be. Tuesday night, Al-Jazeera and the RFL have agreed. Unexpected for a club shunned by the national media and especially since the judgment TVs Contract with Orange last year.

Especially since it's not anyone looked at the fate of the Dragons. Charles Bietry blew mediatically football and rugby union in a setting like no other pictures. The Catalans Dragons and lovers of rugby league should be delighted by the combination of talent from the former athletic director of Canal + and unlimited means of Al-Jazeera. Charles Bietry who granted us an exclusive interview in which he reveals his ambition around the Super League.



When will Al-Jazeera will broadcast its first Super League matches?

The launch date of the chains has not yet been set. It will be this week. We stay with June-July. That means we take the Super League season underway.


How much are the fees you paid to broadcast the Super League?

I do not disclose details of my contract. In any case, we will more than anything done by the chains that had the rights of the Dragons so far (note: Sport + gave nothing, Orange took the production costs dependent).


What role will the rugby league on your chains knowing that you have gained many rights on football?

The XIII will have an important place. This will be one of our major products. I know that rugby league is a great sport. Without denigrating the XV, we realize that 15 players per team on a lot, that's a lot. Moreover we see that when there is a yellow card, the spaces become available. XIII A, there is more action, more play It's a very good show. It really is a sport television. I still do not understand how the sport has not 'taken' in television.

"Al-Jazeera will broadcast the Super League, NRL and State of Origin"


What exactly will broadcast Al-Jazeera?

We will produce and will broadcast all matches of the Catalans Dragons at home but also those outside that Sky will broadcast (note: Sky only broadcast the match at Warrington on July 9 after the antenna Al-Jazeera). But there will be the Super League every week on our channels. It will broadcast one or more matches in Sky. But we will also have the NRL Championship (Australia) and the State of Origin.


Are you interested in the France team or the Elite?

Not by the Elite at the moment but the team of France why not. In this regard, I met the vice-president of the Federation today (note: yesterday) because the president was not available.


Which means you put on the treatment of Dragons?

We will live in the Super League week through magazines. It will come as often in Perpignan prepare for living subjects of the Dragons. And concerning the processing of matches, we will not place four cameras and then here. We have the same means as those I put on football.


When you chaired the PSG sports, you threw the PSG Rugby League, what experience have you gained?

I have very fond memories. We had something good with Jacques Fouroux was invested therein. And then we had 18,000 people Charléty anyway!

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

http://www.lindependant.fr/2012/02/09/les-dragons-qataris,115792.php

Link to that article The Daddy2 posted.

Sounds good so far, pity they will miss a heap of games until later in the season though.

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

Looks like a real shit fight is about to start in French Television with this new channel on the march trying to get the Basketball rights off Canal +

http://brl-tv.blog.leparisien.fr/ar...zira-la-bataille-de-la-pro-a-aura-bien-l.html

Between Canal + and Al Jazeera, the Battle of the pro A begins
Amazing how the pro A becomes an issue for French broadcasters. According to my information, Al Jazeera has already made ​​an offer to the National Basketball League to steal the rights of professional championship to Canal +. Offers a much more substantial than the 4 million annual contract. Engaged with the history of French basketball broadcaster until 2014, the LNB has an exit clause at the end of the 2012-2013 season. According to two insiders, the LNB seems quite impressed by the will of Charles Bietry to convince its leaders to leave for the Canal + Group's French subsidiary Middle East. Aware of the danger, the encrypted string will delegate to Roanne, place the week of Ace February 16 to 19, a triumvirate to meet leaders of the LNB:


Alphabetically, Pierre Fraidenraich, new director of acquisitions of sports Canal + Group, Cyril Linette, athletic director of Canal + and Francois Roux, head of sports channels (Sport +, Infosport +). So begin hostilities between Canal + and Al Jazeera. A boon for Béral ​​Alain, the chairman of the LNB, anxious to boost revenues French basketball. Without prejudging the outcome of this negotiation, it promises to occupy the headlines the next few months. And, above all, an important step in the confrontation between Industrial Canal + to Al Jazeera. For the French basketball finally crystallized a lot of things: This sport rooted in the history of the encrypted channel constituted one of the first Paris Charles Bietry. Today, the director of sports channels Al Jazeera Sport France is in the opposite camp, for the beginning of another story.

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

http://www.lindependant.fr/2012/02/09/christophe-jouffret-un-soulagement,115863.php

Christophe Jouffret: "Relief"
On 09/02/2012 at 06:00 by Matthew Terrats
Anxiety after the release. While the fear of a season devoid of media exposure on French territory took a little more weight as the weeks marched, yesterday sounded like a real relief in the house Dragons. The Al-Jazeera and IMG - the subcontractor responsible for finding a relay in the hexagon to Sky Sports, and therefore the broadcasts of the Super League matches - found and concluded an agreement for the next three seasons. The time had therefore to jubilation for Jouffret Christopher, the director general of the Catalan franchise. "It's been months talking about, it pulls, we doubt. This is a great relief and great satisfaction that the lengthy discussions conducted jointly by IMG, but pushed by the FFR XIII and us- same, lead ".

Al-Jazeera, a media exotic rugby league but "who wants to move forward with the image of Qatar which is implanted in the world of sports, football, as PSG, for example".


Economic potential and unparalleled credibility to any test, Charles Bietry forces. Him, the former athletic director of Canal + and France Televisions, which has made no secret of great interest to the thirteenth, when it launched the project as PSG Rugby League when he chaired the capital club. "Of course the presence of Charles Bietry reassures us, launches Jouffret. He is a man advised television, which did not want to miss this extraordinary product of ours. Addition to the Super League, he did very well saw the blow by appropriating the NRL matches that will attest, by their attendance and the quality of play produced, the show that can offer XIII. Anyway, if Al-Jazeera has the audacity to do that, c is certainly due to him. "

According to Sport +, Orange and a possible resumption of a DTT channel, the Qatari group has won the loot. And with the Dragons. "It's good for us, but it falls in line with the development of our club: a new forum, a number of subscribers increases, the honorary title of Club of the Year". Better, with Al-Jazeera, the Dragons went into another dimension.

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

1 other little thing, this contract expires just as the next round of SL franchise decisions comes along. If the SL does well on Al Jazeera Sports, this could be massive for a team like Toulouse who will need to prove they can be sustainable, and what better way than having a new TV contract behind you?

 

[blukablu]

1 other little thing, this contract expires just as the next round of SL franchise decisions comes along. If the SL does well on Al Jazeera Sports, this could be massive for a team like Toulouse who will need to prove they can be sustainable, and what better way than having a new TV contract behind you?

What about the French national team do they have a deal in place or still looking?

 

[AlbertRosenfeld]

What about the French national team do they have a deal in place or still looking?

Bietry said that he will be showing the French national team games. Also they will have a weekly magazine show.

Having Toulouse in Super League in 2015 would make the whole operation worthwhile for Al Jazeera because they could be guaranteed a French home game every week (assuming the RFL cooperates in the SL scheduling).

If that works I am sure that more French clubs will be encouraged to try to join join Super League, if the RFL will take them. Bietry's role at Paris in the mid-1990s will be a positive for us attracting a Paris licence sometime down the line.

 

[astreizix]

Al-Jazeera Sports will be a fully new sport channel in France which will start between June and August this year.

They are new in the French audiovisual scene and compete directly with Canal+ which made so far rain and shine in sport here in France.

Al-Jazeera will open 2 channels (named "Be in Sport 1" and "Be in Sport 2") , They now have an aggressive policy of purchases of TV rights, mostly soccer, the most popular sport and the most watched; thereby engaging in a war without concessions against Canal +

Should know that the boss of these future channels, Charles Bietry, is the former director of sports at Canal + and it is for many people, one of the men who most influenced what sport is now on French television .

The fact that he chose RL with soccer is a very good thing for french Rugby League, but we must remain cautious because if he did not try to get RU is that their TV rights were not available for the next 3 years.

 

[Reborned]

A three year start on TV would wonders for the game in France. Even when and if they do eventually get Rugby Union hopefully their relationship with Rugby League and Rugby League results are still strong.

 

[AlbertRosenfeld]

I would think that, if Al Jazeerra ups their contract price offered for 2015 to include Toulouse in Super League, then the RFL will be under a lot of pressure, especially from the FFR13, to give a licence to Toulouse in 2015. If that works out successfully -- and I mean by that Toulouse does reasonably well on the pitch, and has a growing number of French youth and senior players attracted to the game -- then Bietry and the FFR13 are in a position to contemplate further expansion of the number of French Super League clubs in 2018 or 2021. Paris would be the obvious prefered choice for the third Super League club, and after that Lyon and Avignon would be attractive to Al Jazeera and the FFR13. But the amount of money offered by Al Jazeerra for each additional French club would have to be significant for the RFL to consider more French SL clubs.