Mediapro moves up the debut of beIN SPORTS in Spain
Juan Fernandez Gonzalez
| 29 June 2015
With Gol Televisión saying goodbye to Spain's TV market on 1 July — leaving the line-ups of both satellite and pay-TV operators — Mediapro opens the door to the early arrival of beIN SPORTS, which could start airing the same day.
Initially scheduled for launch on 1 August across pay-TV platforms, the Al Jazeera-owned channel will replace Gol Televisión on the premium sports channel scene earlier than originally thought.
The network will be launching on the Mediapro-owned Gol Stadium and Total Channel, but will gradually be added to other pay-TV line-ups. BeIN SPORTS is already airing in France, the US (since 2012) and Canada, in addition to some South Asian countries including the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand.
For a long time, Al Jazeera has been intending to jump into the Spanish market, which could also be used as a platform to strengthen the group's Latin American position.
Mediapro is completely closing down Gol T, after announcing a month ago it will return its DTT licence Atresmedia. The media company is instead launching a new free-to-air (FTA) channel in that slot, dubbed Mega.