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Arab Radio & Television Network (ART) has signed an agreement with Al Jazeera Network under which Al Jazeera Network will acquire ART’s sports content and associated ART sports trademarks.

Post this agreement between the two media entities, ART shall continue to act as host broadcaster for the Saudi Football Federation competitions and to transmit the matches on ART Sport 7 jointly with Al Jazeera Sport Channels until the end of the 2010-2011 season on ART Sport 7. ART Sport 7 will be available on Al Jazeera Sport Channel bouquet.

The press statement reveals that Al Jazeera Sport Channel will add a wide array of sport events to the span of its exclusive right portfolio including the FIFA WC 2010 and 2014, the African Cup of Nations from 2010 to 2016, several football national league championships from the MENA region and all Saudi League and national team matches.

ART will distribute Al Jazeera Sport Channels +1 to +8 only on a non- exclusive basis as part of the new ART bouquets. ART Sport and Al Jazeera Sport subscribers will be able to access for free sports channels from both ART Sport and Al Jazeera Sport bouquets, for a period of one month starting from December 1, 2009. ART subscribers will be able to continue to enjoy their sports programmes on Al Jazeera Sport channels as part of the ART bouquet.

ART Sport channels 1 to 6 will cease to be transmitted on December 31st 2010.

The financial details of the deal between the two were not revealed officially, yet, a news item at rapidtvnews.com informs that Al Jazeera is paying close to $2bn to pick up the ART contracts.

Arab Radio and Television Network is an Arabic-language television network characterized by its multitude of channels, based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. ART broadcasts internationally, expanding its coverage to North America, Europe and Australia.

Al Jazeera Network is a television network headquartered in Doha, Qatar. Initially launched as an Arabic news and current affairs satellite TV channel with the same name, Al Jazeera has since expanded into a network with several outlets, including the Internet and specialty TV channels in multiple languages, and in several regions of the world.