High subscription prices put World Cup out of reach of most Egyptians CAIRO: World Cup fever is raging throughout the globe, and the Middle East is no exception. For one month every four years, the world stops for the most anticipated sports event in history, as indicated by the 1.7 billion people who tuned in to watch this year's opening match between Germany and Costa Rica. No one has capitalized on this universal wave of giddiness more than the private Saudi-owned Arab Radio and Television (ART) network, which bought the exclusive rights to broadcast the World Cup in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region until 2014. For a price tag of $100 million, ART bought the exclusive broadcast rights to air all four of the World Cup tournaments since 2002 in the region, making it the king of satellite TV in the Middle East. With sole dominance over the market, ART has been able to hike up subscription prices at whim, making a hefty profit by crippling the pockets of cash-strapped viewers in addition to preventing local broadcasters from buying feeds to show the games. In Egypt, one year ART basic-plan cash subscribers must pay an additional LE 339 for World Cup channels. For basic plan cash subscribers of less than three months, World Cup channels come at an additional cost of LE 700. The network offers Egyptian subscribers two sale packages; LE 1,120 for a one-year subscription that comes with all the World Cup channels, including European league football channels, or a LE 900 package for one year with only World Cup channels. For Egyptian minimum-wage employees, who make $100 per month, the reduced-price subscription fee to watch the World Cup would mean forking out more than one month's salary. "I make LE 400 a month. Of course I can't afford to subscribe to ART, says Ibrahim Ahmed, an assistant tailor. "ART is for rich people. "I have ART, and I honestly wouldn't be able to live without it during the World Cup, says Moustafa Samra, a student studying in England. "But luckily, I can afford it. Not many people can, and I'm not talking just about those on minimum wage. However, not everyone thinks ART is taking unfair advantage. "It's definitely not expensive. We paid a lot of money for this, and have offered subscription packages at sale prices to appease the people, says a senior marketing executive at ART Egypt, speaking on condition of anonymity. "In fact, we even offered it (the feed) for sale to the government for around 18 million euros, but they declined. Unlike the Egyptian government, Jordan's King Abdullah II, who was the president of the Jordanian football federation for five years until he ascended the throne, stated that he would foot the bill to set up 23 big screens across the kingdom to allow fellow football fans in impoverished areas to get live World Cup coverage. The king will also provide the Jordanian armed forces and security agencies with satellite receivers to watch the games. Jordan's state radio has also said it would give live air coverage to the World Cup on its FM station while a number of banks, satellite merchants and television retailers in the kingdom are seeking to make lucrative business by offering ART subscriptions to those taking out loans, buying satellite receivers or TV sets. Yet, despite the Egyptian government and private sector endorsement, Egyptians are still clamoring to subscribe to the network. According to the ART source, close to half a million Egyptian subscribers are upgrading their services to include World Cup channels, while 25 percent of total subscribers already have World Cup channels. While the ART employee concedes that for Egypt, the subscription fee is unaffordable for minimum wage employees, if you take Egypt out of the equation, the cost of subscription is affordable for the rest of the region. And if you can't afford to watch it at home, you can afford to watch it at any of the local cafes, upscale shisha haunts or hotels, where establishments have paid dearly to lure avid fans to churn up profits. Public viewing in Egypt in establishments that have paid for subscription have increased more than two fold, by 261 percent, he stated. "I personally prefer to watch games at cafes with friends, it adds to the mood of the tournament and makes the games more enjoyable to watch, says Christopher Khalifa, a recent Egyptian graduate of Boston University. For those who prefer to cheer unrestrainedly at home, as an alternative to the pricey ART fee, many have installed satellites that come with German channels, which, as the host country, can air the matches. However, our source states that ART is not losing any sleep over potential customers lost to alternative satellite networks. "This is quite a costly service. If viewers would like to receive the matches on European satellite, they need a very large dish, which is quite expensive. We are not worried about it. With the ART subscription, you get everything - free installation, all the hardware, no administration fees. So in the end, it becomes less expensive than the alternative, says the marketing executive. But many Egyptians are irked by the fact that they have to find a replacement in the first place. "The point is not what are the alternative means to ART to watch the games. The point is, and should be, it is my fundamental right to be able to watch the games, and corporations should not rob people of an event that brings the world together just to make profits, says Samra. Khalifa agrees, albeit with less emphasis. "I believe that the World Cup is an event that attracts a mass audience worldwide, the majority of which cannot afford to pay any kind of subscription to watch it. Therefore, by setting high viewing costs for such a tournament, it deprives the mass population from viewing it on television, and undermines the fundamental populist appeal of the sport, says Khalifa.
