Fiscal follies

With the World Cup just having finished, Lebanese fans were glued to their television sets savoring each fantastic goal and glorious football moment. But many missed the opening matches: they hadn’t purchased expensive subscriptions from Sama or MK Electronics-Echosat, the exclusive providers for land, internet and satellite viewing of the World Cup in Lebanon. Last minute efforts to secure broadcasting rights from Qatar-based beIN Sports to show the games via Tele Liban, Lebanon’s free public television station, were unsuccessful. For the first 11 games, Lebanon’s football fans were scrambling desperately in search of a way to watch their favorite teams. As luck would have it, Minister of Telecommunications Boutros Harb found a simple solution: use revenues from the country’s two mobile phone companies to pay for rights to the games. This was welcome news to the Lebanese who would no longer be coerced to fork over hard earned liras every night