Lebanon’s massive own goal in attempt to secure TV coverage of World Cup

The latest example of Lebanon’s escalating mediocrity must surely be its failure to secure local coverage of the World Cup, surely the most popular sporting tournament on Earth.

The latest example of Lebanon's escalating mediocrity must surely be the state's failure to secure terrestrial coverage of the Fifa World Cup in time for the opening game. For weeks, the government had been trying to convince us that it was close to agreeing a deal with Qatar's Al Jazeera that would give TeleLiban, Lebanon's all but forgotten and woefully underfunded state channel, the broadcast rights free of charge.
"The deal is now in its final stages," Abdul-Muttaleb Al Hinawi, Lebanon's minister for youth and sport, breathlessly told local media over the weekend. "We have intensified contacts with Qatari officials and we should get approval as soon as possible. The entire government is working to make this happen."
That flabbergasting last sentence prompted one wag on social media to wonder what should concern him more – that we should be worried that government has abandoned other more pressing issues to ensure we can all watch football or that even with a collective effort it has failed so far to achieve even this.
Either way, the realisation on Thursday night that we couldn't watch the games on local TV prompted a frantic nationwide trawl through the 300 or so mostly useless satellite channels most of us get from illegal cable providers to find at least one that was showing the game.
The French TFI showed the opening ceremony and about 30 minutes of the match between Brazil and Croatia before it cut out. Those who had access to Sky Sports in Italian were in luck, but the rest of the country sat fuming in front of a frozen goalmouth scramble.
In the meantime, the local satellite provider Sama, which has the rights from Al Jazeera to broadcast the games on satellite networks, is charging anywhere between US$110 and $400 for a special World Cup package. So the Lebanese were faced with having to stump up or go out to a bar or cafe, which would probably cost the same, if not more, in the long run.
Then at 11.30am yesterday, Boutros Harb, Lebanon's telecommunications minister, announced that US$3 million in revenues from the state-run mobile phone sector would be used to pay Sama for the World Cup rights.
Good news all round, but the government should have been more decisive. Instead of going cap in hand to the Qataris, why didn't it just buy the rights the usual way and use the World Cup as a platform to relaunch the fortunes of TeleLiban? It would certainly be the most watched channel in the country during the tournament, and any advertising revenues could be ploughed back into buying better programming in the future. Lebanon needs a functioning and credible state TV channel.
In other news, in a document entitled "Up and Coming Cities For the Rich" Beirut beat off Cape Town, Chennai, Chicago, Dublin, Istanbul, Jakarta and Lagos to come top.
Why? Because Beirut real estate is apparently still packed with opportunities for the savvy investor. According to the report, a two-bedroom apartment in the city can be picked up for between US$180,000 and $500,000. Yeah right. Eight years ago maybe.
A new, "small" 170 square metre two-bedroom flat in the "up and coming", but still decidedly edgy, Mar Mikhael district will set you back $750,000. Move into the centre of town and you are nudging $1 million for new build.
Add in registration fees and the flat will come in at a tad over $800,000 ,which means that a landlord would have to achieve $40,000 a year to get a 5 per cent return on his investment. Given that supply in Beirut easily outstrips demand, a factor apparently ignored by the report, it would surely be better to put your money in lira at 6 per cent. At least you get your hands on your capital at any time; property is not as liquid as it is in Europe and secondary market activity is sluggish, again something the report's authors overlooked.
And then there is Beirut itself. "It's a jungle out there," said my banker friend, whose World Cup anguish was eclipsed by an incident in front of his building, where "valets", who live by parking cars for shoppers and visitors to the area, have expropriated his parking spot by installing a removable concrete bollard. "And you complain that they are trying to rip us off over the football? It's madness. We live in a mafia society."
I can't be sure, but I doubt the report mentioned that either.
Michael Karam is a freelance writer based in Beirut
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