Al Jazeera mulls English Premier League bid

Al Jazeera could bid for UK as well as international rights to English Premier League matches, according to Al Jazeera Sports director Nasser al-Khelaifi.

Al-Khelaifi told Reuters that the broadcaster was weighing up whether to make a bid for the UK rights. He said that Al Jazeera would look at all European markets on a case-by-case basis to see whether there was room for it to launch a sports channel.

Meanwhile, the possible acquisition of French rights to English Premier League rights by Al Jazeera could serve as the basis for a rapprochement between the Qatar-based broadcaster and Canal Plus Group in France, according to Le Parisien magazine.

Al Jazeera has so far failed to strike a deal with Canal Plus for carriage of its two beIN Sport channels on the CanalSat platform. According to the magazine, Canal Plus may seek to extract a share of English Premier League rights as part of the price of any deal for carriage of beIN Sport.