Fifa, world football’s governing body, has said it is considering legal action against parties connected to BeoutQ, a pirate channel that has been broadcasting content produced by Qatar’s beIN Media Group, including the ongoing World Cup in Russia.
BeIN last month 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, and made its latest request ahead of the World Cup, for which it holds exclusive rights across the Middle East and North Africa region.
BeIN has repeatedly called on Saudi Arabia to shut down BeoutQ in the country. BeIN claims that BeoutQ is showing the broadcaster’s “propriety media content.”
BeIN said that since last October, BeoutQ has been using a signal from Riyadh-based Arabsat to illegally transmit its broadcasts. It added that Illegal transmissions from BeoutQ had appeared in Morocco, Jordan and Syria, and it was likely they would soon reach Asia and southern Europe.
In a statement, Fifa said: “Fifa is aware that a pirate channel named BeoutQ has illegally distributed the opening matches of 2018 Fifa World Cup in the Mena region.
“Fifa takes infringements of its intellectual property very seriously and is exploring all options to stop the infringement of its rights, including in relation to action against legitimate organisations that are seen to support such illegal activities. We refute that BeoutQ has received any rights from Fifa to broadcast any Fifa event.”
BeIN last week made 22 matches from the 2018 World Cup available via its free-to-air channels in the Middle East and North Africa following pressure over access to the tournament from multiple markets in the region.
BeIN announced the move shortly before Thursday’s opening match of the tournament, which saw Saudi Arabia defeated 5-0 by the host nation in Moscow. BeIN said the “landmark deal” represented a “clear statement and gesture of goodwill” by the broadcaster to offer its content to the widest possible Arabic audiences.