BeoutQ

The Qatar-based beIN Sports is the dominant broadcaster of sports programming in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It had held rights to prominent events such as the Olympic Games, the FIFA World Cup, UEFA Champions League, Asian Football Confederation (including the AFC Asian Cup), La Liga, and Premier League in association football, Formula One racing, international tennis events, and other events. In June 2017, as part of a diplomatic crisis over alleged funding of extremist groups by the government of Qatar, beIN was banned from selling its subscriptions in Saudi Arabia, and the beIN Sports channels were briefly banned in the United Arab Emirates (the ban was reversed the following month). It was reported that Saudi Arabia planned to fund a new competitor out of Cairo, Egypt, known as PBS Sport, but the proposed service never launched. A few months later, a new subscription service known as beoutQ emerged, which repackaged the beIN Sports channels as their own. Initially, the service was distributed online, but later began to be distributed via 10 satellite channels. The service's launch was backed by a social media campaign on Twitter; Saud al-Qahtani, former adviser to King Abdullah, participated in the campaign. bundled with a free one-year subscription. In September 2018 during legal proceedings in the United States, beIN linked the beoutQ website to Saudi businessman Raed Khusheim, who is chief executive officer of UAE-based television provider Selevision. Khusheim denied the claims, arguing that it was a "smear campaign" by beIN stemming from business disputes. == Programming ==

beoutQ's "Live Sports" programming was distributed via 10 channels. Initially, most of beoutQ's programming came verbatim from the beIN Sports networks, except with beoutQ digital on-screen graphics (DOG) overlaid over those of beIN Sports. The beIN Sports channels took on-air measures to frustrate these tactics, such as occasionally changing the position of its DOG so that beoutQ would have to reposition its own to cover it again. its frequencies were frequently mentioned in beoutQ's marketing. Arabsat regularly denied that it was involved in beoutQ. A French court commissioned an independent test that had also traced the signals to Arabsat. It was observed that beoutQ's satellite frequencies changed frequently during the test, likely to evade detection. == Technical details ==

In 2019, MarkMonitor performed an investigation into beoutQ's hardware and software at the request of FIFA, UEFA, and major European football leagues. The beoutQ boxes remained usable with other IPTV services. == Reactions ==

The beoutQ service was widely condemned by beIN Media Group, broadcasters, and sports rightholders. In February 2019, Keaveny stated that the stances of rightsholders over the unauthorised redistribution of their content would now be a "critical" consideration in future rights deals and that beIN would also pay less because their rights could no longer be protected. He argued that piracy was "an existential threat to the economic model of the sports and entertainment industry". In June 2019, beIN laid off 300 employees, citing the piracy issues as a factor. In October 2019 at the Leaders Week conference in London, beIN Media Group CEO Yousef Al-Obaidly predicted that the market for sports broadcast rights could crash if rightsholders did not take enough steps to prevent the unauthorised redistribution of their content. On 21 September 2019, the Al Jazeera program What Lies Beneath broadcast an investigative report alleging that beoutQ's operations were based in Riyadh and tied to the service providers Selevision and Shammas. It also claimed to have obtained evidence of plans to potentially move the transmission site to North Africa, and a leaked video showing the operation's headquarters and infrastructure. In November 2019, beIN Sports stated that it was "actively reconsidering" its relationship with the Lega Serie A over its agreement to host editions of the Supercoppa Italiana in Saudi Arabia. beIN accused the league of "making a quick buck from the very entity that has been stealing its rights for two years". beIN's contract with the Serie A is valued at around US$500 million—accounting for just over half of the league's international media rights revenue. The Supercoppa agreement had also faced criticism for Saudi Arabia's history of using sport to direct attention away from its human rights issues. When the Serie A resumed its 2019–20 season on 20 June 2020 after a suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic, beIN suspended its broadcasts of the league on all of its networks worldwide. The company stated that its "legal and public position" had been "consistent and well-documented for three years". The suspension ended on 29 June, after beIN reached an agreement to be compensated for the impact of piracy on its media rights. A bid led by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) to acquire Premier League club Newcastle United faced scrutiny due to beoutQ, among other factors. In May 2020, Conservative Party Member of Parliament Giles Watling proposed that the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport hold an evidence session regarding sports piracy in Saudi Arabia. beIN Sports's lead English football presenter, Richard Keys, regularly expressed opposition to the Newcastle deal on-air, mentioning beIN's conflicts with beoutQ. On 22 September 2020, beIN announced that it would not renew its MENA region rights to Germany's Bundesliga. Chief sports officer Richard Verow argued that piracy was crippling the market and reaffirmed that beIN would "only bid for rights at levels that make economic sense and have a value proposition". On 22 June 2018, Saud al-Qahtani stated that the Saudi Arabian Football Federation had filed a complaint with FIFA against beIN Sports's alleged monopolization of sports broadcast rights in the MENA region. He also stated that the government was coordinating "inspection campaigns" and confiscating beoutQ equipment. In July 2018, the Ministry of Media accused the All-England Club—organisers of Wimbledon—of "parroting" beIN's accusations surrounding beoutQ and the involvement of Arabsat, which it considered to be "baseless" and lacking credible evidence. Furthermore, the Ministry of Media described beIN as having engaged in an "irresponsible" smear campaign against Saudi Arabia by means of its sister company Al Jazeera Media Network, which it described as "a media platform for terrorists to propagate their violent messages and to promote instability in the region". Two days later, beIN Sports's license to broadcast in Saudi Arabia was officially revoked. By other countries In November 2018, the BBC and Sky plc sent letters to European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström, urging that action be taken against beoutQ's operations. Stan McCoy, the EMEA president of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), told The Hollywood Reporter that the MENA Anti-Piracy Coalition—which includes various broadcasters and service providers serving the region, including Arabsat—was "very much activated" on the issue of beoutQ, On 6 March 2019, the Coalition sent a letter to Arabsat demanding that it take a position and/or action towards beoutQ within two weeks, or else the Coalition would issue a public statement and begin the process of removing Arabsat from the group. The Coalition could not agree on the wording for the statement; thus, no action was taken. In January 2020, the European Commission placed Saudi Arabia on its priority watch list for violations of European intellectual property rights, citing the country's inaction against the service. In April 2020, Saudi Arabia was placed on the USTR's Priority Watch List for the second year in a row, citing via submissions by the Premier League that illegal IPTV services continued to be available in the Saudi market on "up to three million" beoutQ boxes, among other devices. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) condemned beoutQ for airing the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, stating that it "has already instructed counsel to take legal action in Saudi Arabia and is working alongside other sports rights owners that have also been affected to protect its interest". However, in March 2019, the AFC pulled its rights in Saudi Arabia from beIN Sports (moving them to an in-house streaming platform), in support of the Saudi claim that the network held a monopoly. beIN announced that it would pursue legal action, considering the actions to be politically motivated and accusing the AFC of colluding with the Saudi Arabian Football Federation to violate its contract. In June 2019, the Serie A's new CEO Luigi De Siervo stated that the league was taking legal action and would not rule out pulling Saudi Arabia's hosting rights to the Supercoppa (which had been negotiated by his predecessor Marco Brunelli). == WTO case, resolution of the conflict ==

On 2 October 2018, Qatar filed a case against Saudi Arabia with the World Trade Organization (WTO), citing violations of the TRIPS Agreement. The same day, beIN Media Group also initiated an investment arbitration lawsuit against Saudi Arabia seeking US$1 billion in damages, citing beoutQ and other measures that had hindered its ability to do business in the country. On 16 June 2020, the WTO panel issued its report concerning Qatar's complaint against Saudi Arabia and it's alleged failure to provide adequate protection of intellectual property rights held by or applied for entities based in Qatar. The panel report found that beoutQ had received assistance from a Saudi-based content distributor, had used the facilities of Arabsat for transmission, and benefitted from promotion by government officials. The WTO panel also found that Saudi Arabia had obstructed beIN Media Group from receiving counsel in the country. On 29 July 2020, Saudi Arabia appealed the ruling, arguing that it contained "serious errors of law and legal interpretation that need to be corrected". beIN then accused the Saudi government of "[lying] to governments and rightsholders across world sport about the WTO ruling" and "appealing a WTO decision that they said they won". On 4 January 2021, Qatar and Saudi Arabia agreed to restore their diplomatic ties under a deal brokered by Kuwait and the United States. After the resolution, Reuters reported that restaurants in Riyadh had begun to screen beIN Sports programming via satellite, although beIN claimed Saudi Arabia had not yet reinstated its license to broadcast in the country. During a hearing of the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) in September 2021, a representative of Newcastle United argued that the Premier League was "improperly influenced" from lobbying by beIN Sports and other Premier League clubs in its decision to block the sale, constituting an "unfair application of rules" and "abuse of its position which distorted competition". On 6 October 2021, beIN Media Group stated that Saudi Arabia was preparing to lift their ban on beIN Sports. The decision was reported to have been a concession in order to expedite approval of the Public Investment Fund's acquisition of Newcastle United, which was officially cleared by the Premier League the next day. In January 2022, Qatar and Saudi Arabia mutually agreed to suspend their case with the WTO. == See also ==