Al Jazeera Sport is to introduce a new set top box in January "to tackle piracy concerns in a bid to restore live coverage of all English Premier League games," according to Kyle Sinclair of THE NATIONAL. Since last month, viewers in the UAE have only been able to watch one live game on a Saturday at 3pm U.K. time -- "with no change to their subscriptions." Al Jazeera Sport, "which has the exclusive broadcasting rights for all 380 Premier League games for the next three seasons, explained its actions with a statement on its Twitter feed @ajsenglish." It claimed that "the move was imposed by the Premier League over fears that the transmissions of Al Jazeera Sport and other global broadcasters were being illegally viewed" in the U.K. The statement said, "At Al Jazeera Sport we take piracy very seriously because it has an impact on so many people, including our subscribers." The broadcaster also announced that next month it would introduce a new set top box that would be "secure" to help move towards a "piracy free situation as soon as possible." However, "it was still unclear if the full complement of Saturday matches would be restored" (THE NATIONAL, 12/8).
