beIN Media wins Olympic TV rights for Middle East and North Africa in $250 million deal

The International Olympic Committee have awarded Middle East and North African broadcast rights to the Games for the next two Olympic cycles to Qatar’s beIN Media Group ©beIN Sports

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has awarded Middle East and North African broadcast rights to the Games for the next two Olympic cycles to Qatar’s beIN Media Group.

Following a tender, the group’s beIN Sports global sports network has acquired rights for the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics, Tokyo 2020, the 2022 Winter Games in Almaty or Beijing and the as yet unallocated 2024 Olympics across all platforms, including free-to-air and subscription television, internet and mobile phone, and in all languages.

The deal - understood to be worth $250 million (£160 million/€225 million) - also includes the right to broadcast all editions of the Youth Olympic Games until 2024.

Today's announcement takes the IOC closer to the final total of around $4.5 billion (£2.9 billion/€4.1 billion) it is understood to be projecting from worldwide broadcasting rights for the Pyeongchang 2018/Tokyo 2020 cycle.

This would represent cycle-on-cycle growth of some 10 per cent.

insidethegames revealed this month that the IOC had now generated as much from the sale of broadcasting rights for the 2017-20 cycle, as the $4.1 billion (£2.6 billion/€3.7 billion) sum it will receive from this, the Movement’s largest revenue source during the present Olympic cycle culminating with Rio 2016.

Even after this Middle East and North Africa deal, some large areas including Russia, India and Latin America remain to be sold in 2017-2020.

beIN Sports has established itself as the Middle East and North Africa's leading sports broadcaster since being independent from Al Jazeera Media in 2013 ©beIN Sports

IOC President Thomas Bach said he was “pleased to welcome our new broadcast partner in the Middle East and North Africa, beIN Sports”.

He added: “With its excellent track record in broadcasting, we believe that it will provide fantastic coverage across the region of each edition of the Olympic Games, including free-to-air television coverage.

“beIN Sports has also committed to providing unprecedented promotion of Olympic sports all year round, including significant support for the Olympic Channel in the future.”

Nasser Al-Khelaifi, beIN Media Group’s chief executive, said: “Although we have had the privilege to broadcast the Olympic Games for many years in [the Middle East and North Africa], our direct acquisition of the Olympic Games from the IOC fulfils our ambition of bringing all premium sports to our viewers in the region.

“We look forward to further growing our relationship with the IOC.”

IOC delegate member for broadcast rights in the region Prince Feisal Al Hussein said beIN Sports, which was launched as a brand in France in 2012, had established itself as a key sports media group in the region.

“We believe it will be an excellent partner for the Olympic Movement,” Prince Feisal said.

In December 2013, Al Jazeera Sport was spun off from the Al Jazeera Media Network to become beIN Sports.

Today beIN Sports has 36 channels worldwide and broadcasts across the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.