BeIn Media Group is optimistic of agreeing a deal to buy Californian film studio Miramax, the Qatari firm's deputy chief executive told Reuters on Wednesday.

"We are optimistic. I think you might hear something on this in the short-term," Yousef Al-Obaidly, deputy CEO of state-owned BeIn Media Group, told Reuters on the sidelines of a company event in Doha.

Privately-held Miramax, which owns the rights to hundreds of Hollywood films including "Bridget Jones' Diary" and "The English Patient," was exploring a potential sale, sources told Reuters last July.

An investor group including state-owned Qatar Holding and Thomas J Barrack Jr.'s investment firm Colony Capital bought the company from Disney in 2010 for $660 million.  - Reuters