Alkass Sports Channels ( ar, قنوات الكأس الرياضية) is a group of eight
sports channel
Sports channels are television speciality channels (usually available exclusively through cable and satellite) broadcast sporting events, usually live, and when not broadcasting events, sports news and other related programming.
The first sport ...
s that are broadcast
24/7 from
Qatar
Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...
. Its official name is ''Al Dawri wal Kass'' ( ar, الدوري والكأس, lit=the league and the cup), since it was initially launched to broadcast domestic football in Qatar. The eight channels of Alkass are numbered from one to eight.
Starting from 2013, four of its eight channels (Al-Kass 3/6/7/8) are encrypted with Qatari pay-tv network
beIN Channels Network
beIN Channels Network (; stylized as beIN) is a pan-Arab direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster owned by beIN Media Group, which is based in Doha, Qatar.
Technology
beIN had launched 6 multi-function interactive decoder ...
, which are specified to broadcasting matches of
AFC Champions League and
AFC Cup.
History
Alkass Sports Channels was launched in June 2006 as the second sports channel from Qatar after
Al Jazeera Sports. In its first year, the channel won many viewers with its unmatched coverage of domestic sports, especially football. It also broadcast the
2006 Asian Games held in Doha. It now also covers matches involving the Arabian Gulf countries, notably
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...
qualifying matches, the
AFC Asian Cup and the
Arabian Gulf Cup. It has emerged as one of the most popular sport channels in
Arabia
The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. ...
.
Al-Kass has now eight sports channel, four of them are
FTA and the other four channels are encrypted with the Qatari pay-tv
beIN Channels Network
beIN Channels Network (; stylized as beIN) is a pan-Arab direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster owned by beIN Media Group, which is based in Doha, Qatar.
Technology
beIN had launched 6 multi-function interactive decoder ...
.
Programming
Football
In September 2012, Alkass held the rights to broadcast the
Qatar Stars League in English.
Football broadcasters
Events
Besides broadcasting, the channel has held certain sporting events in its history. A notable event is the
Alkass International Cup. It is an under-17 tournament in which the best teams in the world send their youth teams to Qatar to participate in the tournament. Both, Qatar's Aspire International, and Aspire Qatar participated. The main purpose of the tournament is to help develop youth systems worldwide. There are cash prizes for the winners.
Awards
The channel won the best Persian Gulf Sports Channel award in 2007. Khalid Jassim, the host of the ''Majlis'' (The Council) programme won the best host award.
The channel also won two awards at the Promax BDA awards held at New York in June 2008.
AMEInfo
References
{{Reflist, 33em
External links
Official website
1996 establishments in Qatar
Television channels and stations established in 1996
Arabic-language television
Television networks in Qatar
Sports mass media in the Middle East
Mass media in Doha