What do British pub goers and Arabs have in common? Al Jazeera!
While many in the Arab world were pirating the satellite signal of Swiss channels during the last World Cup, it seems that some Arab channels are becoming popular in Europe. The New York times reports on how Al Jazeera sports and other Arabic satellite channels are making their way into British pubs.
Pub owners are ditching Sky for the cheaper rates of Al Jazeera. Arabic commentary on the games.. never mind!
Al Jazeera Sports Plus, a fast-growing satellite sports channel, has become popular with viewers who want Formula One races and British soccer matches. The commentary is strictly Arabic, but the cut-rate service, along with other foreign satellite channels, is gaining a broad following in British pubs, where customers are getting accustomed to toasting their favorite soccer teams while watching the occasional ad for a Greek supermarket or a Czech car dealer.
“We’ve had whole games where we don’t have any English commentary,” said Derek Hopper, owner of the Royal Exchange, a pub in Portsmouth, England. “We just turn the volume down. We tried doing the radio,” where the commentary is in English with a time delay, “but we found it was a little distorted. I tell customers, ‘Just watch with your eyes like you do at a real game.’ ”
1 comment August 25th, 2006
