beIN SPORTS: Positive balance of the channel after barely three years in operation

The balance of the TV channel beIN SPORTS after almost three years since its launching has been positive according to what its deputy managing director Antonio Briceño told PRODU. beIN SPORTS currently has a total of 33 million subscribers between the English and the Spanish feed, even though Briceño admits, it hasn’t been an easy task, specially because of the consolidations that are approaching in paid TV, like the ones of the Time Warner Cable (TWC) and Comcast; and DIRECTV with AT&T, which they don’t agree with, particularly the Comcast-TWC fusion “although we regard both of them as very important strategic partners for the channel”, he said.Another important development that he highlights is the Canada market. The Miami office is in charge of sales and distribution in Canada and they just launched the beIN SPORTS Connect platform, direct link for subscribers. “Today we are launched in the six main Canada systems as a channel a la carte”. Although soccer is a fundamental element in the beIN SPORTS grid, and is what has made them known, Briceño says that they are making very important purchasing efforts to offer a varied screen with disciplines that have not been attended by the usual sports media in the USA. In this sense, they have a Mexican boxing bar –beIN Boxing– Saturday nights, which has resulted well.He also announced the design of a new set for stand up positions that was launched the day of the broadcast of El Clásico (March 22). “This set was made aiming to highlight our star property which is the Copa América in June in Chile and we will also make another set that will be exclusively devoted to the Copa America”, he said.”Starting January this year and in a joint agreement with IMS, we decided that each one would go his separate way and we took the advertising sales in beIN SPORTS. We have an office in New York, headed by César Ruiz and his sales team”, he mentioned.This year for the Upfront they will make a road show in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and in the Miami Open. Additionally, they will take 40 important clients to live the experience of the Copa América in Chile in the middle of the year.