Arab Radio and Television Network

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Arab Radio and Television Network (ART)

Company type	Private
Industry	Telecommunication
Founded	15 October 1993; 31 years ago (1993-10-15)
Headquarters	Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and Cairo, Egypt
Products	Direct-broadcast satellite
Website	www.artonline.tv

Arab Radio and Television Network (acronym: ART) is an Arabic-language television network characterized by its multitude of channels. It is based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

History and profile

ART was founded on 15 October 1993 by Saleh Abdullah Kamel, a Saudi businessman and is a private company specializing in family entertainment, including movies, music and sport.

ART was particularly known in Saudi Arabia for its exclusive sports event broadcasts, especially the Saudi Leagues. The network lost a significant amount of its audience share after the launch of many similar free-to-air channels like the Rotana network, owned by Al-Waleed bin Talal. At the time of launch, ART produced over 6,000 live and recorded shows per year, including family-oriented dramas, series, plays, sports programs, music videos and documentaries.

ART is broadcasting via the Arabsat, Nilesat and Hot Bird satellites. Most ART Channels are encrypted using Irdeto 2 Encryption. ART's technical broadcast facilities are based in Jordan Media City in Amman, Jordan.

On 24 November 2009, Al Jazeera purchased all of ART's sport channels which had the license to broadcast the FIFA World Cup 2010 and 2014 matches. This decision led to calls to boycotts of Al Jazeera by Arab football fans who were accustomed to watching major football events for free; and turned broadcast rights into a political issue where governments —who often purchased broadcasts and aired them locally for no charge, had to be involved. ART Sports was subsequently rebranded as Al Jazeera Sports (since 2014, BeIN Sports). Later that year, ART also sold most of its remaining entertainment channels to Orbit Showtime Network.

ART channels list

Arab Radio and TV Network consists of the following channels:

Current channels

TV

ART Aflam 1: Arabic movie channel one
ART Aflam 2: Arabic movie channel two
ART Cinema: Arabic movie channel three
ART Hekayat: Arabic drama channel
ART Hekayat 2: Egyptian drama channel
ART Hekayat HD: Arabic series Pop-up channel in HD during Ramadan
ART Hekayat 2 HD: Arabic series channel in HD during Ramadan
Cima: Arabic movie channel four
Iqraa: Arabic Islamic channel
ART Movies: Arabic movie channel five, broadcast in North America, Asia-Pacific and Australia
ART: International Arabic channel, broadcast in North America and Brazil
ART Tarab: Arabic classic music and opera channel, broadcast in North America and Australia