A tour of Beirut’s cafes… What you need to know about the “cost” of watching the World Cup

In June of 2018, the Lebanese state entered into negotiations with the Qatari company “BEIN” and its agent in Lebanon, the “Sama” company, to broadcast the World Cup matches in Russia on Lebanon’s terrestrial TV, so that the Lebanese might watch the most important tournament for the first popular sport in the world. And it succeeded in that, despite the fact that the negotiations were described at the time as “shahadah,” that is, begging, in an attempt to reduce costs so that the state might bear them.

Today, following four years, the time has come for the World Cup in Qatar. Years in which life changed in Lebanon following the great economic collapse in 2019, and if the state was previously begging to transfer matches, today it is begging to transfer them, and it did not succeed in that because of 4 and a half million dollars, which the Lebanese government says it is unable to pay because of its constitutional inability to The meeting was held because of the presidential vacuum looming over the country, which made the poor of this country deprived of the pleasure of watching football.

Sama owns the exclusive right to broadcast beIN sports channels in Lebanon. It was established in 2010 in Beirut and works in the field of exclusive rights to satellite channels, the most prominent of which are sports channels that broadcast the most important European championships and leagues for the Middle East and North Africa region, and the first European Cup A world that “Sama” obtained the rights to transmit, it was the World Cup in 2014, and things have continued as they are to this day.

Sama owns the exclusive right to broadcast beIN sports channels in Lebanon, and was established in 2010 in Beirut.

The company owns an exclusive agency that applies to all Lebanese regions, and its exclusive agency includes “the rights to broadcast and re-broadcast terrestrial, aerial and IPTV, and the rights to sell DTH cards, and broadcast channels via large screens in cafes and hotels, provided that these rights are exclusive and cannot be broadcast or re-broadcast and work without obtaining prior permission from the company, according to the agreement signed with Al Jazeera Sports (which became bein today).

In homes, the cost of subscribing to watching the World Cup varies between those who originally own a digital receiver and those who do not. The former can subscribe to channels that broadcast World Cup matches for $55 in Beirut, for example, and $65 in the south. This is due to the difference in the provider, between a direct agent of “Sama” company, and a sub-distributor who gets 10 dollars from each subscriber, while the 55 dollars are for the agent. Thus, the cost in pounds is regarding two million and 200 thousand pounds, and therefore the cost of one match is 34 thousand Lebanese pounds.

As for the second, he must buy a digital broadcasting device, and thus the subscription costs approximately 95 US dollars, which is equivalent today in Lebanon to 3,800,000 Lebanese pounds, and the cost of watching each match is regarding 60,000 pounds.

This applies to homes. As for cafes, their management is different, and their prices vary between $500 and $20,000, depending on the size of the cafe, the number of chairs it contains, and its geographical location.

And the Lebanese Ministry of Tourism had announced on November 19, that “with the start of the 2022 FIFA World Cup matches, and since the tourist institutions that will show the matches in their halls will have a financial cost, each institution according to its capacity, it is allowed for tourism institutions that The matches will be transmitted, by collecting an entry fee for each person or determining the price required to be collected for each person, according to what the institution provides, during the match broadcast period.

Accordingly, some cafes set a price for each chair in exchange for watching a World Cup match, and others imposed a “minimum charge” on each customer, that is, paying an amount of money that includes watching, eating and drinking, with the aim of setting a minimum bill for each customer.

Some famous cafes in Lebanon paid the exclusive agent more than 10 thousand dollars, and some of them reached the limits of 20 thousand dollars, so they imposed large sums in Lebanese pounds in exchange for watching the World Cup, which a large proportion of the Lebanese would not be able to meet.

In a tour of some cafes in more than one area in the capital, Beirut, it was found that the minimum amount for watching one match in the World Cup ranges from 200 to 400 thousand pounds, why and how?

Raseef22 toured some cafes in Beirut, as a result of which it became clear that the amounts vary according to the place, between 100 and 400 thousand pounds as a general average, depending on the importance of the match. Next, if a citizen wants to watch half of the World Cup matches, i.e. 34 matches, he must pay between 3 million and 400 thousand and 10 million and 200 thousand pounds, for watching only, and these cafes are among the group that paid the agent more than 10 thousand dollars to obtain the right to broadcast the matches, and some cafes followed the “minimum bill” method, and these cafes paid the agent less than 10 Thousands of dollars, and small popular cafes paid regarding 500 to 1000 US dollars.

In the Ashrafieh district of Beirut, “Lebanon” coffee requires a minimum amount of 400,000 Lebanese pounds from the customer, while the Green Café, located in the same area, imposes a minimum amount of 250,000 pounds on the customer in important matches exclusively, while Al-Saha Restaurant is served on the road The airport in Beirut is free to watch, given that the occasion is able to gather a greater number of customers, and it is always one of the intended destinations, in the event of matches or in the absence of them.

A “pros” café in the Dekwaneh area imposes a minimum bill according to the match, and prices range between 100 and 200 thousand pounds, with the aim of collecting the subscription price, as they say, while in the “Kakkaya” café on Hamra Street the minimum is 150 thousand pounds, and in the Casino du Liban, which The pioneers are received in the ambassadors’ lounge. Prices range from the minimum bill between 300 and 350 thousand Lebanese pounds.

In the southern suburbs of Beirut, the Gardenia Café set a minimum bill of 100,000 Syrian pounds for its customers, which allows them to get a hookah and a hot or cold drink. Its owner, Muhammad, tells Raseef22 that this small amount comes because he knows the financial level of his customers, noting that he paid In return for obtaining the right to broadcast, 800 US dollars, or 32 million pounds.

Broadcast theft is not available, and all that can be done is to watch through applications on the phone that do not provide good quality and are always blocked

In some popular cafes in villages and towns far from Beirut, the subscription fee is the same as the subscription fee for a citizen in his home, i.e. up to 65 US dollars, and these cafes do not impose any fees on their patrons for watching.

Firas, a distributor of cable services in the Al-Jamous and Safir areas in the suburb, told Raseef22 that “90 percent of his customers who own a digital broadcasting device, subscribe to watch the World Cup for $55, while there are regarding 30 subscribers who bought the broadcasting device and the right to watch for a price of $55.” $95,” pointing out that football fans, even if they are from poor groups, pay the amount because football gives its fans a sense of joy, and therefore they sacrifice 50 or 100 dollars for it.

Firas asserts that broadcast theft is not available to anyone, and all that can be done is to watch through applications on the phone that do not provide good image quality, and are not guaranteed because they are blocked by those in charge of the Qatari company. As for popular cafes, matches can be shown in them following purchasing the broadcast device. digital for homes, but these cafes will be subject to high fines if caught.

According to what the distributor tells, the exclusive agent, through his employees, makes tours of the regions to ensure that no one has violated, and the tours will increase in the middle of the World Cup, indicating that such actions take place in areas far from the capital, and in some overcrowded and poor areas within the capital, where they are Monitoring is very difficult.

Not all Lebanese are able to follow the fun of football in the World Cup, as they are not able to bring matches to their homes, nor go to watch them in cafes and restaurants, and the matter in Beirut and major cities may be more difficult for them, since cafes in villages offer fun for free, and Youssef Huila One of them, a young man who lives in Beirut, supports the Brazilian national team and is looking for a way to watch the matches of his favorite team only.

Youssef’s salary is 5 million pounds. If he wants to watch the matches, the most important of them, he needs more than his salary just to watch them in the cafe, so what does he do and who is like him in this case?

He told Raseef22: “My salary is only 5 million Syrian pounds, and I can barely cover food, drink, and house rent. I am unable to watch the matches, neither in my house nor in cafes, even on the Drama Live app, which one of my friends told me that matches can be watched through.” On the phone, but it needs a lot of ‘internet’ and also the streaming sites steal the show, so I’ll try to watch Brazil matches at a friend’s house.

What applies to Youssef applies to many, for Lebanon is in a critical economic situation, and the inflation that affected the economy has made the poor the majority in the country, and these people have no hope of watching the World Cup except through Lebanon TV, which has not yet announced to the Lebanese the good news, although the required amount is considered a number. Simple for financiers, including politicians and businessmen, who have benefited over decades from Lebanon’s bounty and the money of all Lebanese.