Paid for but not delivered.

A service paid for by consumers isn't delivered. The non-supplier says it's not his fault, doesn't mention compensation.

Shock! Horror! Surely not!

In reality it's not an unusual situation in this area by any stretch of the imagination.

This time it's the exclusive World Cup TV coverage supplied by Al Jazeera Sport to the region.

Or more accurately, partly supplied.

There are reports from across the region of people who've paid hard-earned money to watch the games but not getting what they've paid for.

Almost half of the opening match between hosts South Africa and Mexico was lost. Next day about half the Argentina-Nigeria match was also lost.

Frozen screens, garbled pictures, wrong language was what the punters received for their outlay.

"We're being sabotaged" say Al Jazeera.

Hackers have been mentioned but the fun stuff comes with the conspiracy theories.

Al Jazeera Sport have blamed Nilesat, accusing them of 'an act of piracy by causing intentional disruption'.

Egyptian Radio & Television Union, which owns 40 percent of Nilesat, responded with their own conspiracy theory - that Al Jazeera might have decided to punish Nilesat 10 minutes after the first disruption by claiming that its causes were unknown and requesting its viewers to move to other providers, such as Arabsat, Hotbird and Noorsat.

Nasser Al Khelaifi, GM of Al Jazeera Sport, says that Al Jazeera is working with "a number of international specialised companies" to track down the culprits and that he was confident they would be be found soon.

That's nice.

Meanwhile, the problem needs to be sorted out so that people who've paid to watch the matches can actually see them. In full. In the right language.

I assume it's far too much to hope that a discount based on what's not delivered is in the pipeline.



There are plenty of reports in the region's media, here are some:
Gulf News.
Arab News.
Arabian Business.