MADINAH, 15 June 2006 — Soccer fans in Madinah attacked the main branch office of the ART channel after their reception of satellite signals was disrupted during the World Cup match between Brazil and Croatia Tuesday night.
With the Kingdom gripped in soccer madness, subscribers of ART, the satellite channel that possesses exclusive rights to telecast the World Cup in the Middle East, gathered outside the company’s main office on Airport Road to express their anger.
Many people accused ART of monopolizing the World Cup and of deceiving the customers. Even though they had paid subscription fees three days ago they couldn’t watch the World Cup.
Subscribers rejected the explanations given by employees and demanded that ART solve the problem immediately. Some of the subscribers asked what the ministers of commerce and information were doing in protecting their consumer rights.
Office workers pleaded with the crowd that there was an operating fault in activating the cards at ART’s head office in Dubai. Technicians said they were working in coordination with their administration office in Jeddah to solve the problem.
Subscribers in Riyadh and Cairo experienced similar problems when ART obtained exclusive rights to telecast the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea.
