Paris (AFP)
Italian football returned to beIN on Friday with Juventus-Lecce, after a week without calcio on the sports channel, the group announced following an agreement reached with Serie A.
"Serie A is officially back on the air this evening with Juventus - Lecce (9:45 pm) on beIN SPORTS 1," the channel announced on Twitter.
"An agreement has been reached to return Serie A matches to the worldwide beIN network in 35 countries - from France to Australia - following the global blackout this week," said one Qatari group spokesperson in a statement.
Earlier this week, beIN Sports announced that it had decided, "for legal reasons", "not to broadcast Serie A matches", notably depriving viewers of the return to the Juventus league last Monday.
This episode is part of the battle of the Qatari group against Saudi Arabia, which it accuses of being behind a system of illegal dissemination of its images via a satellite, dubbed BeoutQ.
The president of the beIN group, Yousef Al-Obaidly has repeatedly recalled the conflict between him and BeoutQ, and regretting that the Italian championship has established partnerships with Saudi Arabia.
On June 16, the World Trade Organization agreed largely, saying in a report that the Saudi authorities had in any case done nothing to prevent and punish this hacking.
In its press release, Friday evening, beIN does not detail the financial details of the agreement concluded with Serie A but assures that it "sets a major precedent" for all international broadcasters who pay astronomical sums in exchange for rights supposed to be exclusive.
This dispute is part of the wider context of the diplomatic conflict between Qatar and its Gulf neighbors: accusing the emirate of being too close to Iran, they cut diplomatic ties with Doha in 2017 and imposed it an economic blockade.
This episode also comes as beIN must negotiate the rights for the next seasons of Serie A.
The group holds the rights to the Italian championship until 2021 in 35 areas including France, Turkey, 24 countries of the Maghreb and the Middle East, Indonesia or the Philippines, representing 55% of Serie A revenues at l 'foreign.
© 2020 AFP