Staying in
Al Jazeera Sports has the rights to broadcast the matches, so you need to ensure that you have this channel set up.
There are something like 10 different Al Jazeera Sports channels, and the coverage will invariably be across more than one channel depending, for instance on how high-profile the game is, so it’s essential to get all of them. Just to be sure.
To upgrade your existing Etisalat package to include Al Jazeera Sports, you’ll need to contact E-Vision, the entertainment arm of Etisalat (www.evision.ae). The Orbit Showtime network doesn’t provide Al Jazeera Sports, so going through E-Vision is the only way. Subscription starts at an extra AED 23 per month to your existing rates.
Al Jazeera itself is selling a card which slots into Etisalat decoders. To subscribe, existing customers of Al Jazeera Sport will have to buy a card worth AED 370 while new subscribers can take out a six-month deal for AED 480. Details on these are a little sketchy; if you have the patience, a wander down Electra Street might yield some results.
Be warned – don’t buy an HD card if your decoder doesn’t support HD. And it goes without saying that if your TV doesn’t support HD, any investment in high definition will be a waste of money.
Carrefour currently has a deal on with two brands of decoders, one HD and the other SD, throwing all Al Jazeera Sports channels in for six months for free. These cost AED 1085 and AED 755 respectively.
There are two good websites that you can stream matches on, www.justin.tv and www.myp2p.eu, Given the TRA’s attitude to some such sites and the occasionally variability of internet connections, there’s no guarantee that these will be 100 percent successful.
If you have a fast enough internet connection you could subscribe to a VPN service – a Virtual Private Network that establishes a network connection within your network connection and makes your computer appear to be somewhere else rather than in the UAE. The downside is that it effectively halves your bandwidth speed; hence having a fast connection is essential. Check out www.vpn.co.uk for more details.
If you’ve managed to get the matches streaming live to your laptop or desktop, you can hook this up to a great big TV using an HDMI cable. Most computers now support HDMI; others will a VGA port. Stores like PlugIns sell both HDMI cables and VGA cables starting at AED 39.
Should you feel the need to squander your hard-earned and really show off to your friends, you can even watch the matches in 3D - of course you will have to splash out on a compatible TV first. Etisalat is providing all its new customers or current subscribers upgrading to the eLife triple play Premier package (16MB) or Max package (30MB) that combines Internet, fixed line and TV service and provides various tailor-made package options including 3D and HD TV. In addition, customers can also opt for subscribing to 3D TV service and HD on a stand-alone basis from E-Vision.
