Soccer-heavy sports startup beIN Sport has a Dish Network launch to go with yesterday's DirecTV rollout.
As of its kick-off last night, the network is available on Dish's America's Top 250 (AT250) in English and on DishLatino packages as beIN Sport E, a Spanish-language version. The Dish signals are in standard definition, whereas DirecTV launched high-definition and SD versions in English and the SD version in Spanish, the companies said in yesterday's DirecTV announcement.
Select beIN Sport content will be available on DishOnline.com in a provision similar to what was announced yesterday regarding DirecTV carriage.
The programmer, which obtained some European football league game rights (including to Spain's La Liga) that had been held by other networks, has not announced any cable affiliation pacts yet. Dish several years ago dropped GolTV, which lost the La Liga rights to beIN Sport.
Overall, DirecTV and Dish are the second- and third-biggest multichannel TV providers in this country, with about 20 million and 14 million subscribers, respectively.
"Our association with beIN Sport makes Dish the undisputed pay-TV leader in Latino sports," Dave Shull, Dish's senior vice president of programming, said in a release. "BeIN Sport is bringing together the best games, from the best leagues from around the world onto one channel."
