Du CEO Osman Sultan has told Arabian Business that the company will “definitely” broadcast this year’s World Cup tournament.
Following concerns from subscribers that it has yet to make any announcement and with the tournament kicking off on June 11, Sultan said: “This is the greatest sporting event in the world and yes, we will show it for sure – definitely.”
He added that an official announcement would be made, giving more details, in the “next few days”.
Du is thought to be in the final stages of negotiations with Al Jazeera Sport, which owns the Middle East broadcasting rights to the event.
In the UAE, Etisalat has already announced its World Cup packages. However, with less than two weeks to go before the event starts, thousands of du customers have become increasingly concerned that the telecoms operator – which has exclusive broadcasting rights in most of Dubai’s new developments – would not be transmitting the event.
Al Jazeera is charging existing subscribers $100 to upgrade to the World Cup service through the purchase of a satellite card.
However, du customers in the UAE do not have card slots in their decoder boxes, and so are completely reliant on the telecoms operator providing the service.
