A broadcasting dispute resulting from a monopoly held by satellite TV channels means football fans are once again the losers, reports Ahmed Morsy Despite Egypt's failure to go to the 2010 World Cup, or perhaps because of our misfortune, most Egyptians want the national team to make amends at the Africa Cup of Nations (ACN) currently being staged in Angola. But to follow the team's fortunes means to be able to first see the games, and that has become a huge problem. The Egyptian public had been gearing up to watching the 27th edition of the ACN, depending heavily on the Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU) to purchase the broadcasting rights from Qatar's Al-Jazeera Sport which owns the exclusive airing rights in the Middle East to the tournament. However, hopes were apparently misplaced after no deal was reached. The Arab Radio and Television (ART) network had until recently been the exclusive broadcaster of the 2010 ACN and 2010 FIFA World Cup. Suddenly and without warning Al-Jazeera obtained the broadcasting rights from ART in a record contract deal worth close to $1.5 billion. ERTU, headed by Osama El-Sheikh, negotiated with Al-Jazeera for acquiring the broadcasting rights for Egyptian terrestrial channels. Negotiations reached a dead end after Al-Jazeera requested a staggering $10 million a game. After the beginning of the championship the ERTU tried again with Al-Jazeera, bringing the amount down to $9 million, but that too was rejected since the terms of the deal were to broadcast only 10 of the ACN matches of which ERTU would have no say over which ones to choose. In addition, it would have been prohibited to re-run the games. The stipulations also prohibited local commentators. To the surprise of all, Al-Jazeera decided on Tuesday, 12 January, just hours before Egypt's opening match against Nigeria in the African continent's most prestigious championship, to broadcast the game on one of its unencrypted channels on NileSat. Tunisia against Zambia, scheduled for Wednesday, 13 January, was to be broadcast as well. According to Al-Jazeera, the decision was made "to satisfy Arab viewers". "We are not prejudiced against the local channels -- including Egypt -- and our desire is not to prevent them from covering this tournament," Nasser Al-Khalifi, general manager of Al-Jazeera Sports, said in a press statement. "We offered to sell some of the matches on ERTU for a reasonable price compared to the cost we paid to acquire the rights of the tournament. We received the ERTU's agreement but then they changed their mind after not getting the necessary funding," Al-Khalifi added. "The contacts were redrawn and we offered a lower price in a genuine attempt to conclude the matter in the best possible manner, but the same was repeated." Al-Jazeera and the ERTU are not on the best of terms, constantly criticising one another in their TV programmes for a perceived bias towards either side. But Al-Jazeera's decision to broadcast at least Egypt's opener against Nigeria may have changed the minds of Egyptian viewers that Al-Jazeera wasn't so bad after all. If anything, the ERTU is being blamed by the Egyptian public for what has been described as its slowness in starting the negotiations. In a recent statement, El-Sheikh stated that no one will twist Egypt's arm, referring to what he believes to be "ridiculous terms of agreement" imposed by the Qatari channel to allow the matches to be aired on Egyptian terrestrial television. As such, only Al-Jazeera's subscription members were able to watch the tournament on the encrypted channels. Up until Monday, only 24 hours before Egypt's opening game against Nigeria, those who did not subscribe to Al-Jazeera were at a loss over finding another channel to watch the game on. Al-Jazeera viewers previously paid LE120 as a yearly subscription fee to access Al-Jazeera's sports channels, but the price shot up to LE400 because of the ACN. Subsequently, Al-Jazeera's main offices in Mohandessin and Maadi were inundated with complaints and angry crowds which gathered to subscribe or renew their subscription. A large number of security men were on hand to prevent things from getting out of hand. "It's the second time that I spend the whole day in front of the company's headquarters to get my subscription card activated. There is no organisation," Hatem Ahmed told Al-Ahram Weekly. "I recently subscribed but they gave me the card without being activated. It took me two days to activate it." Not everyone can afford the high cost of the subscription and so have resorted to other alternatives, including the illegal connection or shared-cable access, known as the wasla which costs from LE25 to LE35 monthly depending on the district. "Football is my main interest," Tamer Abdel-Aziz, a wasla user, says. "I can't miss football matches, but at the same time I can't pay the subscription fees they are asking for. So we have to find other ways to get access and the wasla is one." Even those who chose to watch the match in cafés found that most café managers had raised the fees or minimum charge to cope with the rise in subscriptions. "We knew that the match would not be aired on public Egyptian TV so I decided to watch it with my friends in a café," teenager Islam Essam said. "I was astonished by the increase in the price. Nevertheless, the place was packed." In the meantime, Egypt's Consumer Protection Agency ruled that Cable Network Egypt will refund subscribers who thought they would be watching the tournament on ART. Ultimately, though, the only ones who are paying the price of this feud are football fans who in soccer mad Egypt make up the bulk of the population. Eleventh hour negotiations allowed the Egyptian public to watch the Egypt 2010 World Cup qualifier against Algeria and the 2009 FIFA Club World Cup. But this time, in Angola, there has been no such last-minute dramatics.
