BeIN Media Group has agreed a new three-year partnership with digital security company Irdeto.
Under the deal, beIN will utilise Irdeto’s conditional access solution and security services to deliver sports content to customers across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
Irdeto has been working with beIN on other projects for a number of years and the new agreement represents an expansion of this relationship.
Doug Lowther, chief executive of Irdeto, said: “Live sports and entertainment are prime targets for online pirates, and beIN is committed to fighting piracy and protecting its business. We applaud beIN’s proactive approach to anti-piracy and protecting high value content – particularly important for live sports with its high costs and extremely limited monetisation window.”
The partnership comes as BeIN continues its bid to shut down a pirate channel called beoutQ, which is operating in Saudi Arabia.
BeIN has exclusive rights for various sports properties in the MENA egion and has claimed that beoutQ is showing its “propriety media content.”
To tackle the issue, BeIN recently formed an alliance with a number of major sports organisations, including Fifa and Uefa, football’s global and European governing bodies, respectively, as well as the Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance.
The English Premier League and French Football League also recently joined the alliance.