beIN Media Group, LLC (/ˈbiːɪn/; Arabic: مجموعة بي إن الإعلامية, Majmū‘at Bī’in al-I‘lāmiyyah) is a Qatari state-owned global sport and entertainment network headquartered in Doha, Qatar. beIN distributes entertainment, live sports action, and major international events across 5 continents, in 43 countries, and 7 languages spanning Europe, North America, Asia, Australia and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
History
beIN Sports was first launched, as a brand, in June 2012 by Al Jazeera Media Network in France. On 1 January 2014, beIN Media Group was established and became the new independent holding company of beIN Sports. In October 2014, it was announced that beIN Media Group had agreed to acquire pay-TV sports channel Setanta Sports Australia, with Setanta being rebranded as beIN Sports Australia.[3]
In 2015, beIN Sports launched an HD channel specially dedicated to football in Spain. The group declared in November 2015 that it would be expanding from sports-only programming to include entertainment and movies as well.[4]