Terrestrial channels regain popularity among World Cup fans

AMMAN — It cost Adel Mousa only JD2 to watch the 2014 FIFA World Cup. 

With the avid football fan unable to afford subscribing to beIN Sports, the exclusive broadcaster of the championship in the region, Mousa bought a small antenna and a cable to watch a terrestrial Syrian channel that is broadcasting all the matches for free.

“Some of my friends told me that a Syrian terrestrial channel called Al Mondial is broadcasting all the matches. I put up the antenna and did an automatic search on the channel and it worked,” Mousa told The Jordan Times on Thursday.

“I cannot afford to pay for subscriptions. The Syrian channel’s broadcast is very clear as if I have a real subscription to beIN Sports,” said the father of five, who works at a cosmetics store in Amman.

There are two kinds of beIN Sports subscriptions: The first costs JD275, is valid for one-year and includes a beIN Sports set-top-box; while the second is a three-month subscription priced at JD185.

Mousa is among thousands of Jordanians who are flocking to electronics stores to buy antennas and cables to get the Syrian channel on their TVs, according to Salah Hamadah, an employee at an electronics store in downtown Amman.

“I have hundreds of customers every day coming to buy antennas and cables to watch the matches on the Syrian channel,” Hamadah said.

“We stopped selling these antennas 10 years ago as no one uses them at all to get terrestrial channels. Everyone watches satellite channels at home, but now we have a good business in selling our stockpiles of old antennas,” he added.

The price of an antenna rose from JD.50 to JD2 in most shops, while some are charging JD5 and even JD10 per antenna, according to employees at different stores.

Watching the matches on this channel without having a subscription is 100 per cent legal, Mohammad Abbadi, director general of the National Library Department, told The Jordan Times.

“Laws across the world and even in Jordan do not criminalise users. There is no violation or anything illegal in watching the matches on a terrestrial channel without paying for a subscription,” Abbadi said.
“It is the channel that is violating copyright laws,” he added.