Welcome, visitor! [ Register | Login

Greedy beIN Sports overcharge footbal fans

| UAE | June 13, 2014

The 2014 Fifa World Cup officially began yesterday in Sao Paolo with a beautiful ceremony and an interesting match between Brazil vs. Croatia.

fifa-world-cup-2014-brazil-500px_wide-banner

While local time at the first whistle in Brazil (the organizing country of the event) was 17:00 Thursday 12th June, in the UAE the time was 00:00 Friday 13th June. Keep in mind the “+7″ hours time difference in case you schedule your favorite matches using Brazilian hours.

In order to view the 2014 Fifa World Cup in the UAE, you initially needed to subscribe to beIN Sports Package for a monthly fee of 78 AED (~22 USD). The process was very easy from the etisalat receiver box, go to Menu -> Extra -> Self Service and select the package.

Starting from 1 of June, beIN Sports Group is extorting UAE football fans and is asking for an additional one-time-payment of 450 AED (~123 USD) to subscribe to a “World Cup Package“. This new package contains the following channels : beIN Sports 1 HD, beIN Sports 2 HD, beIN Sports 11 HD English and beIN Sports 13 HD English. These channels have been removed from the beIN Sports Package for the period of the World Cup.

bein_sports_logoLuckily for me, I did not fall from the coconut tree yesterday. While this may be a common practice in the UAE, since Etisalat is the only provider of TV services, I will not stand for this kind of abusive actions.  I encourage you to take action and prevent other major sport events (Olympic Games, UEFA Champions League, etc) from being overcharged ever again.

My first reaction since receiving an official answer to why I am missing channels in my beIN Sports Package was to unsubscribe. The second thing I did was to submit a complaint and ask for a refund. I am confident that I will need to escalate this complaint in order to achieve my goal, but I am a patient man with a past experience of civilized European services.

The problem of watching live matches of the World Cup remains. Here are a couple of solutions:

  1. Install and use Sopcast : The software provides a simple, free way to broadcast video and audio or watch the video and listen to radio on the Internet.
  2. Purchase and use a VPN : The main advantage of using a VPN is that all UAE internet restrictions disappear, but more importantly you can view freely country-restricted video streams.

For HD viewing it is recommended that you have at least 20 mbps bandwidth. For normal (up to 480p resolution) video you can work with 10 mbps.

Leave your comments, suggestions or corrections using the below form.

May the best team win ;)

                  

39638 total views, 4 today

  

6 Responses to “Greedy beIN Sports overcharge footbal fans”

  1. Wow I was going to purchase the elife sports package today. I didnt know there was extra 450!!! Greedy bein/etisalat!
    Ive been streaming games since forever. Guess thats all we can do.
    thanks Ryan for the heads up.

    • You are welcome Fatima.
      Online streaming is a valid choice and much cheaper (if not free – by using Sopcast).

      As a 3rd alternative, you can buy a receiver and a satellite dish. Depending on your home country’s satellite you may be able to get local channels.

      • Good luck man. It’s ridiculous. How can they just remove bein sports 11 and thsoe other channels from our package for an entire month? 450 DHS for the ‘World cup package’ as well. Can’t wait to leave this exploiting shithole.

      • This is possible because there is only one cable provider company (Etisalat) in the whole UAE. There is no competition to lower the prices, increase the quality of services or to stop these kinds of abuses.
        My suggestion is simply to unsubscribe directly, make complaint about this and use alternative methods to view the Fifa World Cup.
        Luckly for us (Ruwais residents) we can view the FWC in the Recreation Center or in the future Borouge tent ;)

        Regards,
        Ryan

  2. Bein sports with just 13 or 14 channels, is telecasting PL, La Liga , Bundesliga, Italian ligue, Champinship, Uefa cup, Fa cup, African championship , Asian championship , also American football Etc.
    This make Bein sports to telecast only one much for each competition live
    Is this fair?

    • it s not fair.
      they should include more sports channels to include more live games.
      sadly, your only alternative is online streaming.

Leave a Reply to Ryan Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Welcome to www.Ruwais.info

  • This website was created for the people living in the Ruwais Housing Complex. It provides to all the visitors accurate information about our city. You may also post ads or find out about local deals and jobs in the Ruwais Marketplace forum section.

  • Ruwais Housing & Community Services Unit will answer to all your valid enquiries if you use the following Official Email Address.

  • We encourage the ever growing Ruwais Community to make ad posts, comments, suggestions, complaints or appraisals.
    And remember to Share and Like us!

RHC Phone Numbers

  • UAE Emergency
    All Emergencies : 999
  • Ruwais Emergency
    Police : 02-8081000
    Ambulance : 998
    Quick Intervention : 02-8083585
  • Toll Free Number
    All Enquiries : 800-Ruwais (800-789247)
  • Services
    Ruwais Hospital : 02-6020614
    Maintenance Request : 02-6027871
    Security Office : 02-6027753 / 02-6027782

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Follow Us

facebooktwittergoogle_plusrssyoutubefacebooktwittergoogle_plusrssyoutube