Premier League stays with BeIN Sports for entire MENA region

The English Premier League and beIN Media Group have struck a new rights deal that will see beIN Sports be the Premier League’s official broadcast partner in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) until 2025.  

The deal for the 2022-25 rights cycle means beIN Sports can broadcast all 380 matches live in each season across all 24 countries in the region. beIN SPORTS has been the Premier League’s broadcast partner since 2013.

Premier League action will be broadcast live and exclusively by beIN Sports in both Arabic and English language via their dedicated portfolio of 19 sports channels, together with special programming presented by some of the biggest names in world football.

The deal includes Saudi Arabia where beIN Sports has been unable to broadcast for over three years and where the Premier League and other sports organsiations have been subject to massive piracy.  It has been observed that other leagues have looked to move towards splitting rights on a country-by-country basis, and excluding Saudi Arabia from regional deals.

BeIN Media hope that the deal will increase pressure on Saudi Arabia to relax or abandon its ban. The broadcaster has noted that other leagues that have attempted to sell rights to Saudi Arabia separately – notably the Bundesliga, which is no longer available on BeIN Sports – have so far failed to find a buyer in any of the countries in the region.

“We are pleased to agree a significant deal with beIN Sports, who are a longstanding and valued partner. They have an outstanding track record of delivering top-quality Premier League content across all its platforms. Our clubs have millions of passionate fans across the Middle East and North Africa and beIN has played an important part in promoting the Premier League and helping engage those fans with our clubs and players. beIN has an outstanding track record of delivering top-quality Premier League content across all its platforms,” said Premier League chief executive Richard Masters.

“Dedicated coverage of every match in the Premier League, as well as comprehensive support programming and digital content, has helped to further grow interest in our clubs and we look forward to continuing our fantastic partnership with beIN.”

Chairman of beIN Media Group Nasser Al-Khelaifi, said: “We are delighted to renew our long-established and trusted partnership with the Premier League through to 2025. This deal demonstrates that rights-holders who do the most to protect their intellectual property also do the most to protect the value of their media rights. beIN is proud to be the Premier League’s official partner across all 24 countries in the Middle East & North Africa, and we look forward to inspiring and exciting the millions of Premier League fans in the region both in the lead-up to the 2022 FIFA World Cup and for many years beyond.”