BeIN at loggerheads with Saudi Arabia over World Cup rights agreement

Qatar’s beIN Media Group has said it has been unable to strike a sublicensing deal with Saudi Arabia for rights to the 2018 Fifa World Cup as the Kingdom claimed the broadcaster has backtracked on an agreement brokered with the aid of world football’s governing body.

The current impasse comes with Saudi Arabia having qualified for Russia 2018, which kicks off on June 14, with the two nations due to meet in the opening match.

In a statement, beIN said that Fifa has assisted in contract negotiations as the Saudis would not work directly with Qatari officials due to an ongoing diplomatic dispute. BeIN holds exclusive rights to the World Cup across the Middle East and North Africa region, but there is little sign that an agreement will be reached in Saudi Arabia.

“We have been doing everything we can over the past few days and weeks to agree a sub-licensing deal in Saudi Arabia,” a spokesperson for beIN told the AFP news agency. “While there were preliminary discussions, there has been no agreement on price, or indeed any of the main terms of a sub-licence, by Saudi Arabia.”

The spokesperson added: “BeIN remains absolutely open and available to discuss the sub-licence broadcast of Fifa World Cup 2018.”

BeIN has been banned in Saudi Arabia since the dispute between Qatar and a host of its neighbours commenced last year. In an interview with the Bloomberg news agency in Zurich, Turki Al Alshikh, head of Saudi government body the General Sports Authority, accused Qatar of backing out of a deal to let the kingdom air the opening and closing matches, as well as 20 other games, for $35m (€29.2m).

He said details of the agreement had been relayed by Fifa officials. However, Al Alshikh stated Qataris who later met with Fifa and Saudi representatives at the agency’s headquarters this month denied an agreement had been reached on the fee. “Saudi Arabia has shown good faith,” he added. “The meeting was supposed to discuss technical details, not financial.”

The latest development comes after pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports this week resumed carriage via UAE telco Du ahead of the World Cup, while Oman has taken action to block beoutQ, a pirate channel that has been broadcasting beIN content.

BeIN Sports channels had disappeared from the screens of Du customers on Saturday, with the telco stating that this was due to action taken by beIN’s parent company, beIN Media Group. The UAE was one of the countries that ended diplomatic, trade and travel ties with Qatar, where beIN is headquartered, in June 2017, accusing it of sponsoring hardline Islamist groups. This initially led to beIN channels being blocked in the UAE, only to return to air the following month.

In a statement on Monday, Du said beIN Sports channels had resumed “regular broadcasting” while announcing the launch of four exclusive beIN channels for the World Cup.

Meanwhile, Oman has banned the import of decoders that would allow viewers to watch beoutQ. The AFP news agency, citing sources in Oman, said BeIN has sent requests to several countries asking them to ban beoutQ decoders.

BeIN last week stepped up its campaign to eradicate piracy of its sports broadcasts by making a request for Fifa to take legal action against Saudi-headquartered communications satellite operator Arabsat. BeIN has been fighting a long-running battle against what it claims is Saudi-backed piracy of its content.