About 3 years ago after Saudi Arabia along with close allies Egypt, UAE and Bahrain cut its diplomatic and economic ties with Qatar, a pirate Satellite station popped up out of nowhere and started on sports piracy by broadcasting copy-right materials. Almost the entire broadcast rights that the Qatari owned channel, Bein sports was holding were transmitted by this entity on the Saudi Controlled Arabsat satellite
The station is called BeOutQ , which stands for Be Out Qatar, in defiance to the rights of legitimate organization Bein sports. Tons of protests by Qatar government and Bein sports organization who sought the support of FIFA and EUFA among many other service providers came to nowhere as the station, clearly supported by the Saudi Officials continued its piracy unabated.
BeOutQ was selling the box plus a one-year subscription for less than US$100 and was available in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and UAE in clear violation of these countries intellectual property and copyright laws of which the latter two are ultra-strict in its application. The box was initially sold under the table, but later it was on the shelves and can be picked up even in some supermarkets!
The fact that these governments turned a blind eye to BeOutQ illegitimate activities and the transmission was through Arabsat, a Saudi government majority holding company, showed that BeOutQ and its backers have no fear of retribution or sanctions. BeOutQ was emboldened by the reluctance of the western governments to question Saudi Arabia or upset its rulers as Khashoghji’s murder case was so evident.
Finally, it seems that the stakeholders had enough of the Saudi station and the following joint statement is the result of many years of Bein sports effort to stop the piracy.
Joint statement by FIFA, the AFC, UEFA, the Bundesliga, LaLiga, Lega Serie A, Ligue 1 and the Premier League on the publication of an investigative report into the operations of beoutQ
As rights holders of globally followed sports events, whose intellectual property rights have been breached on a systematic and widespread basis by the pirate broadcaster known as beoutQ, we have commissioned a leading industry body, MarkMonitor, to conduct research and produce a detailed and independent technical analysis of beoutQ’s operations.
The report confirms without question that beoutQ’s pirate broadcasts have been transmitted using satellite infrastructure owned and operated by Arabsat. The contents of the report are today being published in full on the rights holders’ websites to provide transparency about the facts of the case and to demonstrate the seriousness with which we, as global rights holders, view this issue.
As previously communicated, we have been frustrated in our attempts to pursue a formal copyright claim against beoutQ in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and, while we have received reports that beoutQ transmissions are currently disrupted, we nevertheless call on Arabsat and all other satellite providers to stop (and going forward agree to refrain from) providing a platform for piracy, which harms not just legitimate licensees, fans and players but also the sports that it abuses. Cutting off its access to transmission services would be a major step in the fight to stop beoutQ. We all, individually and collectively, remain committed to bringing an end to international sports piracy.