Although the Korean SPOTV also took over a fair bit of Fox Sports Asia’s slots and programming… that said, their football coverage outside South Korea (and to a lesser extent Japan, they have EPL and SPFL rights there though some of it is sublicensed to a local FAST channel) is still (re-)developing and whether they’d chase more is an open question.
That said, this is a pan-Asia-Pacific deal between beIN and the Bundesliga, with the deal covering eight Asian countries besides us and NZ. That they are prepared to get AUS/NZ rights despite being relegated to streaming-only (plus Fetch here, but not even that across the ditch) suggests they’re not too bothered about going away, not yet anyway.
Speaking of NZ and beIN, there was something talking about beIN having picked up the UEFA club comp rights there (Champions/Europa/E.C. Leagues) - they’re still held by Spark for one more year, and they effectively outbid TVNZ for the sublicence.
Samsung Australia uploaded this 9 days ago. Unsure what it actually is and what it shows but looks like a separate Free version of BeIN Sports available to Samsung customers
The beIN Sports Xtra concept is something they originally did in the US - offering it to other streaming platforms as a foot-in-the-door thing, and even offering it as a terrestrial subchannel to be picked up in some markets. (Including a version in Spanish for some markets.)
It is on Samsung TV+ as well, and in the US it’s also offered as a stream from a web site - that seems a bit less likely to happen here.
No, this is a separate thing from beIN Sports Connect (and yes I know there is an “Xtra Live” channel on there for overflows, which makes it confusing).
Connect does exist over there too, but I suspect that over there they figured that people who would have subscribed to either cable or another streaming service (YouTube TV, Sling, etc) would be reluctant to sign up to another service, or the lack of desire to put it on a sports tier… hence the “foot in the door” model of sorts, offering Xtra to those providers instead.
I was trying to push BeIN Sports to provide a online tv guide to BeIN Sports Xtra but the response they gave me is they want this to be a hidden service and saying we give Samsung the TV Guide information contact them
The explanation earlier is from our platform since you mentioned our website.
BeIN Sports’ coverage of 2023 Billie Jean King Cup starts tomorrow (Wednesday) with the Group A clash between Switzerland and Czechia at 2am AEDT on BeIN Sports 2. Live coverage will be across BeIN Sports 1, 2 and Xtra. It will also have full match replay of Australia’s ties against Slovenia at 10am AEDT on Wednesday, and against Kazakhstan at 10am AEDT on Friday. Those two ties will be shown live on 9Gem.
The semi-finals and final (regardless if Australia is playing) will be shown live on BeIN Sports Xtra.
Wtf so i just noticed in the Bein sports conect app that apparently they are showing HEX fight 28 on November 18 and its advertised as PPV? So it will be the first time Bein sports has done this in Australia.
Certainly interesting given it’s also a local MMA promotion. One thing of note is that you can’t get “just” the fight, beIN bundle it with 30 days of the rest of their offering, unlike the setup with Kayo and Main Event […I guess you can say they “bundle” it with the Freebies but it’s not the same].
Why is this such a big story? beIn Sports is already avaible on Fetch for the same price. If beIn was being added at no extra cost as it was when on Foxtel/Kayo then that would be a story. I got excited for a minute as I always have Prime Video, my costs are covered by Amazon prime delivery. Free beIn would have been the icing on the cake.
It’s newsworthy after Foxtel dropped beIN which is why it was announced and reported.
Sure it’s still available as an add on to Fetch, but the market penetration and knowledge of that platform and indeed niche nature of beIN’s content mean distribution via Prime’s live channels is more exposure and I’m sure they’ll hope will lead to more subscribers.
Any hope it’ll be added for free is just wishful thinking.
One thing of note is that you can’t get “just” the fight, beIN bundle it with 30 days of the rest of their offering, unlike the setup with Kayo and Main Event […I guess you can say they “bundle” it with the Freebies but it’s not the same].
Surely we can have difference of opinions without adding Lol’s!