CAIRO: If you live close to a Cable Network Egypt (CNE) subscription outlet then you must have witnessed the crowds outside their premises over the past week. The subscription craze escalated last Sunday - a day after the Euro 2008 championship kicked off - and continued throughout the week. Sunday morning witnessed crammed CNE outlets and a constantly busy or out-of-service CNE phone hotline. As the tournament started, football fans were shocked by the reality that only Al Jazeera Sports channels had exclusive rights to air the popular championship to fans in the Middle East and North Africa. In response, people queued up at the CNE premises, which also houses desks for Showtime and ART networks, to subscribe to Al Jazeera Sports +1 and +2, the two channels that are broadcasting the Euro 2008. Unprepared for the rampage, with their normal staff of four or five employees, the result was complete havoc. At CNE's Maadi branch, for example, the queue extended outside their offices on Tuesday. The heat, coupled with the lack of order, caused people to start arguing with each other and with CNE employees. Consequently, a system was established: the CNE security employee would take the customer's ID and give him or her a number, the customer could then leave and come back later. Unfortunately, the system proved to be a failure - some people missed their turn and returned later to argue that they had the next turn. Although CNE is open until 9 pm everyday, when Daily News Egypt went at 6 pm they had stopped taking IDs, saying they had enough customers to last until the end of the day. Al Jazeera no longer operates on the Showtime or ART networks and was presumed to be featured in the Orbit network package. A few minutes before Euro 2008 started, both Al Jazeera Sports +1 and +2 on Orbit changed to Al Jazeera Sports 1 and 2, the free sports channels that do not air Euro 2008. This meant that the angered customers were mainly Orbit subscribers. "When I called Orbit call centers before the tournament started, they told me that the championship will be aired on Al Jazeera Sports +1 and +2, said Taher, an Orbit subscriber standing in the CNE queue. Another angry subscriber joined the discussion saying he was also misled by Orbit and will cancel his subscription with the network for what he called their "dishonesty. On Saturday night, Orbit issued a press release saying that it regrets the situation and that they had "tried to negotiate with Al Jazeera to the last minute and were willing to pay any amount of money, but Al Jazeera refused to allow Orbit to broadcast the matches or even highlights after the match ends. CNE's hotline also experienced a flood of requests, resulting in a constantly busy number or a very long wait on hold. However, Al Jazeera could only be activated by phone to those who wished to pay in credit. Al Jazeera, of course, has capitalized on the demand for its service by cancelling the option to subscribe for six months, making the one year subscription that costs LE 130 mandatory to watch the Euro 2008. Subscription is made directly to Al Jazeera through CNE offices, as it is now not included on any of the packages of the three main networks: Showtime, ART and Orbit. "What if I only want to subscribe for this tournament? Why force me to have the channel for one year? Medhat said. CNE employees were unprepared for the sudden flood of subscribers; especially that it was no secret that Al Jazeera had bought the rights to air the Euro 2008 in the Middle East and North Africa. According to a press release issued by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) in February, the organizing body announced that Al Jazeera was granted the Euro 2008 media rights and "awarded the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup media rights for 2009-12 in the Middle East and North Africa. The UEFA Champions League media rights for 2009-12 will also include the UEFA Super Cup 2009, 2010 and 2011. Al Jazeera won the rights to both the UEFA Cup and Champions League after the first round of bidding. Substantial offers from several of the major media groups - including Arab Radio and Television (ART), Showtime and other broadcasters in the region - were received by UEFA, but "Al Jazeera's offer set them apart as the clear winner of both sets of rights, the press release said. For nearly a year now, Al Jazeera had decided to go solo, ending its contract with Showtime in October 2007. Subscribers were given no notice at the time, repeating what had happened with ART a year earlier when Al Jazeera broke off the deal. Capitalizing on their abundant funds, Al Jazeera has raised the benchmark for media rights competitors. Due to an extremely competitive sales process and intense competition among bidders, a significant increase in the rights fees for international championships has resulted. If long queues are to be avoided, interested subscribers should be prepared that the UEFA Champions League will not be broadcast by ART after the season 2008-2009.s-2009.
