The Doha, Qatar based Al Jazeera English was a news force during the Iraq war and President Bush criticized the TV network for its Iraq war reporting. Al Jazeera became a force in the U.S. TV broadcasting. Al Jazeera is controlled by the Qatari government. It has regular broadcasting services in New York City and Burlington, Vermont. However, the network is struggling to establish its foothold in the U.S. and making an attempt to get into sports broadcasting especially into soccer with its BeIN Sport network.
Qatar is scheduled to host the 2022 World Cup games. It is in the process of buying exclusive rights to broadcast the game in the U.S. and France. It also secured deals with Comcast, DirecTV, and DISH Network for its BeIN Sports channel. The BeIN Sports hold rights for Italian, French and Spanish soccer games.
In Europe, BeIN Sports bought the Paris based Saint-Germain soccer team last year and spent more than $180.2 million to acquire new players. It is spending more than $454 million for rights to broadcast European Union soccer games and other leagues. The large sums of money it is spending in Europe is crushing other sport broadcasters and BeIN Sports is establishing its foothold in sport broadcasting.