STARZPLAY to exclusively live stream Lions’ MENA rugby tour

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Updated 30 June 2021
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STARZPLAY to exclusively live stream Lions’ MENA rugby tour

  • Subscribers can watch games through Premier Sports add-on channel

DUBAI: Streaming platform STARZPLAY is expanding its selection of sports content through an exclusive deal with Premier Sports.

The agreement will allow the company to exclusively stream the upcoming Lions rugby tour of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Premier Sports acquired the broadcast rights to the 2021 British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa in the MENA region and through the partnership rugby fans in the region will be able to watch the game live and exclusively on STARZPLAY.

As part of the platform’s strategy to expand and diversify its content offering, it has created an add-on channel, Premier Sports, which will house the Lions’ games. Subscribers can access the channel for $15 per month.

Earlier this year, STARZPLAY partnered with Abu Dhabi Media to live stream Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) events via the UFC add-on channel on the platform.

Maaz Sheikh, CEO and co-founder of STARZPLAY, said: “Since the launch of UFC, we continue to expand our sports offering and are confident that the newest add-on channel will be enjoyed by rugby fans in the region. We aim to cater to a diverse target audience offering rich and exciting content.”


Google launches AI music model in English, Arabic

Updated 18 February 2026
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Google launches AI music model in English, Arabic

  • Lyria 3 lets users generate 30-second audio tracks via Gemini

DUBAI: Google has launched Lyria 3, a generative AI music model currently in final testing, that can be used via the Gemini website and app to create customized audio tracks.

Users can provide text prompts such as “an upbeat, modern Arabic fusion track for Ramadan” or “a massive, anthemic rock song with an emotive male singer.”

They can add images to their prompts and ask the model to generate a track that reflects the ideas within the pictures. They can also add lyrics or ask the model to generate them.

Lyria 3 then produces a 30-second track along with cover art generated by Google’s artificial intelligence image generator and editor, Nano Banana.

Google said the aim was not to create a musical masterpiece or for copying existing artists but to let users express themselves in unique ways. However, if a prompt specifies a particular artist, the model can draw inspiration their style while still creating an original track.

Lyria was launched in 2023 and is the company’s most advanced music generation model. SynthID, Google’s tool to watermark and identify AI-generated content, is embedded in all tracks it creates.

Users can also upload a file to check whether it was generated using Google AI. Gemini will examine it for SynthID and provide a response based on its analysis.

Lyria 3 is available in Arabic, English, Spanish, French, Hindi, Japanese, Korean and Portuguese, with more languages expected in the future. It will be available on the mobile app in the coming days.