beIN Sports (American TV channel)

BeIN Sports launched via DirecTV on August 16, 2012, coinciding with the start of the European soccer leagues 2012–13 season.^{[citation needed]} The network would later launch on Dish Network the following day^{[citation needed]}, Comcast on September 6, 2012^{[citation needed]} and Verizon FiOS in March 2013.^{[citation needed]}

In 2016, BeIN Sports reached a deal with Conference USA to carry select football, basketball, baseball and softball games.^{[citation needed]} This agreement ended after the 2018–19 season and was not renewed.^{[citation needed]} Also in 2016, BeIN Sports began showing matches from the North American Soccer League.^{[citation needed]}

In August 2018, several major television providers dropped the network; including AT&T (both DirecTV and U-verse), Verizon Fios and Xfinity.^[2]

In October 2018, the WTA Tour returned its broadcast rights back to Tennis Channel. Its contract with BeIN Sports (as part of a wider international deal) was criticized by fans for limiting the reach of its events due to inconsistent and intermittent scheduling (with scheduling conflicts favoring its soccer coverage) and declining carriage.^[3][4][5][6]

Based on numbers from Nielsen, beIN Sports was ranked as the lowest-rated broadcast or cable network in the United States in 2021 based on total viewers, with a 40% decline year-over-year.^[7]

Effective January 22, 2024, beIN Sports USA/Canada talent in English and Spanish are based at MEDIAPRO Mexico studio in Mexico City, Mexico unless otherwise indicated below. Most talent who were based at MEDIAPRO US studio in Miami, Florida, US were released as of January 31, 2024.^[14]

In 2019, BeIN Sports launched BeIN Sports Xtra, a FAST channel extension featuring select free sporting events and related programming. Like the main network, Xtra also has a complementary Spanish service, beIN Sports Xtra en Español (beIN Sports Xtra ñ).^[36]

The service is available on FuboTV, Sling TV, Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, Vizio, Redbox, Samsung TV Plus, Fanatiz, Klowd TV and Xumo. Xtra is also carried on over-the-air television stations in select markets.^[37]