BeoutQ
beoutQ was a pirate pay television broadcaster that operated in Saudi Arabia between August 2017 and August 2019. The service primarily simulcasted the programmes of Qatari broadcaster beIN Sports. Its set-top boxes also contained access to other illegal IPTV services with live channels and entertainment content. beoutQ began operations after Saudi Arabia blocked beIN Media Group from offering its services in the country; the action stemmed from a then-ongoing diplomatic crisis between Qatar and other Arab countries, over accusations that its government provided material support to terrorist groups. A report issued by the World Trade Organization found  that beoutQ was promoted by individuals in Saudi Arabia, and transmitted via the Arabsat satellites. The service faced criticism from beIN Media Group, sports bodies, and governments for its large-scale infringement of copyrights; beIN Sports executives described beoutQ as being engaged in "industrial-scale theft" of its programmes, and warned that the service was "normalising piracy", and creating market conditions that would make the broadcaster less likely to make larger investments in sports broadcast rights. Citing alleged inaction against the service, Saudi Arabia was placed on intellectual property watchlists by the United States Trade Representative and European Union in  2019 and 2020 respectively. In turn, the Saudi government accused beIN Sports of engaging in anti-competitive behaviour, and of participating in a smear campaign against the Kingdom with its sister company Al Jazeera. Citing the impact of the service, beIN declined to renew its rights to Formula One and the Bundesliga in the MENA region. It also criticised Italy's Serie A for its decision to host future editions of its super cup in Saudi Arabia; in June 2020, beIN Sports briefly pulled the league from its channels worldwide, until an agreement was made for the broadcaster to receive  compensation for the impact of piracy on its media rights. Issues surrounding beoutQ also impacted a bid by the Saudi Public Investment Fund to acquire Premier League club Newcastle United; in September 2021, a representative of the club accused beIN of engaging in lobbying efforts against the sale that improperly influenced the Premier League. In August 2019, beoutQ abruptly ceased operations; although it claimed that the service had been taken down for "upgrades", it never returned to air. In October 2021, after the diplomatic crisis was resolved, beIN Media Group stated that Saudi Arabia was planning to lift its ban  on the beIN Sports service, ahead of the Premier League officially approving the Saudi purchase of Newcastle United. Background. 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 by overlaying its own digital on-screen graphics (DOG) on the feed. 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. It was reported that the service's associated decoder boxes and subscriptions had become widely available across the country, bundled with a free one-year subscription. Programming. Initially, most of its telecasts came verbatim from beIN, but beoutQ later began to obtain content from other sources, such as Eleven Sports and Telemundo (the U.S. Spanish-language rightsholder of FIFA tournaments). The beoutQ set-top boxes include IPTV  apps (including one described as being the "Netflix of piracy"), with access to other pirated films, television programmes, and live television channels. The channels also broadcast propaganda attacking Qatar and beIN; one such example included a cartoon short where a beIN Sports executive (depicted as a cigar-smoking businessman surrounded by piles of money) realises that beoutQ was stealing away his customers. He attempts to meet representatives of FIFA (including a cartoon portrayal of its president Gianni Infantino), UEFA, and the Premier League, but they all ignore him. When he gets home, he discovers that his children were also watching  beoutQ. The short ended with the caption "No to monopoly, no to politicising sport." In what Keaveny described as being "cat and mouse" tactics, the beIN Sports channels implemented on-air measures intended to frustrate beoutQ—including having occasionally changed the position of its DOG so that beoutQ would have to reposition its own to cover the beIN DOG again, and intermittent watermarks within the feed that are harder to obscure. Likewise, due to increased on-air discussion of the service by beIN, beoutQ began to increasingly employ its own commentators, who were overdubbed into the beIN Sports video. Signal  origin. The origins of the beoutQ signals were unclear: the service initially claimed that it was backed by Colombian and Cuban investors. However, this claim was denied by local officials in the two countries. 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. Analysis by beIN traced beoutQ's feeds to the Arabsat satellites, whose frequencies were frequently promoted in beoutQ 's advertising. Arabsat regularly denied that it was involved in beoutQ. An independent test commissioned by a French court and released in June 2019 had also traced the signals to Arabsat. It was observed during the test that beoutQ's satellite frequencies had changed frequently to evade detection. In mid-August 2019, it was reported that beoutQ had ceased transmission via satellite; the broadcaster's customer support channels on social media claimed that the service had been taken offline for upgrades. The service never resumed operations, but it was reported that "online distribution of the same programming continues to reverberate  through a seeming myriad of illegal channels, and that content is being captured, hosted, and redistributed by other pirates in many countries." On 21 September 2019, Al Jazeera program "What Lies Beneath" broadcast an investigative report alleging that beoutQ's operations were based in the Saudi capital of Riyadh and tied to Selevision and Shammas. It also claimed to have obtained evidence of financial transactions with Arabsat, plans to potentially move the transmission site to North Africa, and a leaked video showing the operation's headquarters and infrastructure. On 16 June 2020, the World Trade Organization published a 125-page  report finding that there was evidence that beoutQ had operated out of Saudi Arabia, including that the service had "received assistance from a Saudi content distributor in delivering its pirated broadcasts to Saudi consumers", was being distributed using Arabsat, and was "promoted by prominent Saudi nationals". The WTO also found that measures taken by Saudi Arabia "have had the result of preventing beIN from obtaining Saudi legal counsel to enforce its IP rights through civil enforcement procedures before Saudi courts and tribunals." Nearly a month after the report, on 8 July, it was announced that Mohammed Al-Tuwaijri would run  for the role of director general at the World Trade Organization. However, it was reported on 7 October that in second round of the consultations, Tuwaijri lost the bid due to lack of support. On 29 July 2020, Saudi Arabia appealed the WTO ruling, arguing that it contained "serious errors of law and legal interpretation that need to be corrected." In response, beIN stated that "rather than positively complying with international law, since June Saudi Arabia has lied to governments and rights-holders across world sport about the WTO ruling; it has said the Premier League, FIFA and UEFA sent  their legal case to the wrong Saudi email address nine times; it has permanently banned the Premier League's broadcast partner meaning the only way to watch premium sport is via piracy; and now it is appealing a WTO decision that they said they won." Reactions. By beIN Media Group and Qatar. The owner of beIN Sports, beIN Media Group, condemned the beoutQ service. beIN Sports' managing director Tom Keaveny described beoutQ as being operated "at an industrial level", and accused the service of "normalising piracy" in the country, especially with the redevelopment of Saudi Arabia's cinema industry in  support of Saudi Vision 2030. On 2 October 2018, Qatar filed a case against Saudi Arabia with the World Trade Organization, 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 decided to hinder its business in Saudi Arabia. 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. Keaveny stated in February 2019 that rightsholder stances on beoutQ's "industrial-scale  theft" would now be a consideration in future rights deals, and that it would also pay less because these rights cannot be protected. He went on to explain that "we have been warning of the very real commercial consequences of beoutQ's theft of world sport and entertainment for almost two years now – yet the piracy continues with impunity every day and represents an existential threat to the economic model of the sports and entertainment industry." beIN also stated that it declined to renew its Formula One rights due to these market conditions. The rights would be acquired by  the free-to-air satellite channel MBC Action; the channel is owned by the Middle East Broadcasting Center, which is majority-owned by the Saudi government. In June 2019, beIN laid off 300 employees, citing the piracy issues as a factor. At an October 2019 conference in London, beIN Media Group chief executive officer Yousef Al-Obaidly accused sports rightsholders of not taking enough steps to stifle the unauthorised redistribution of their content through platforms such as beoutQ and others. He predicted that the sports media rights market could crash, since "we now live in a world where exclusive broadcast  rights are, effectively, wholly non-exclusive". He also criticised the Lega Serie A for agreeing to host three Supercoppa Italiana competitions in Saudi Arabia over the next five years, as the country had been "stealing the commercial rights of all their broadcast partners for over two years." In November 2019, beIN Sports stated that it was "actively reconsidering its entire commercial relationship with Serie A" over the Supercoppa being hosted by Saudi Arabia, accusing the league of "making a quick buck from the very entity that has been stealing its rights for two years." beIN's contract with Serie A  is valued at around US$500 million—accounting for just over half of the league's international media rights revenue. When the Serie A resumed its 2019-20 season in June 2020 after a suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic, beIN suspended its broadcasts of the league on all of its networks worldwide, stating that "it would not be appropriate to comment further, other than to say our legal and public position has been consistent and well-documented for three years." The suspension ended on 29 June, after it reached an agreement with the league and its international distributor IMG  to be provided with financial compensation 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, and requested that the Premier League testify. beIN Sports' lead English football presenter Richard Keys regularly opposed the proposed sale on-air, mentioning beIN's conflicts with beoutQ. On  22 September 2020, beIN similarly announced that it would not renew its MENA region rights to Germany's Bundesliga, with the company's chief sports officer Richard Verow stating that piracy has "crippled the market", and that "we will only bid for rights at levels that make economic sense and have a value proposition". By Saudi Arabia. Insiders told "The Hollywood Reporter" that Saudi firms had been reluctant to publicly side against beoutQ, due to the service potentially having ties to the Saudi government. It was noted that the MENA Anti-Piracy Coalition stated that it was "fully activated" on  the issue of beoutQ. However, at a MENA Anti-Piracy Conference held in Abu Dhabi in April 2019, there was little to no discussion of beoutQ, and an industry member was allegedly told by a moderator to not go "too far" on discussing the service due to the possibility of legal issues. The organisers of the conference denied that such a restriction existed. During the 2018 FIFA World Cup, beIN Sports commentators were accused by Saudi critics, including General Sports Authority head Turki Al-Sheikh, of making on-air comments critical of the country. On 22 June 2018, Saud al -Qahtani stated that the Saudi Arabian Football Federation had filed a complaint with FIFA against beIN Sports' alleged monopolization of sports broadcast rights in the MENA region. He also stated that the government had been confiscating beoutQ equipment, and would "conduct inspection campaigns in coordination with all relevant bodies to prevent any attempt to broadcast any illegal content." In July 2018, the Ministry of Media accused the All-England Club—organisers of Wimbledon—of "parroting" beIN's accusations surrounding Arabsat and beoutQ, which it considered to be "baseless" and lacking credible evidence. It took issue with the club's description  of beoutQ as being a "Saudi Arabian-based" service, stating that "suggesting that the [Kingdom of Saudi Arabia] is in any way complicit in beoutQ's operation both offends the Saudi people and is a malicious lie." Furthermore, the Ministry of Media described beIN as having engaged in an "irresponsible smear media 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." On 21 August 2018, beIN Sports was fined US$2.6 million by Saudi  Arabia for violations of competition law, including forced bundling of its services with other unrelated channels. beIN responded to the fine by claiming it was politically-motivated, arguing that they were being "attacked by the Saudi authorities for doing exactly what sports and entertainment broadcasters around the world do, and indeed what other broadcasters active in the Saudi market also do", and that the actions were "another illegitimate attempt by Saudi Arabia to drive beIN’s highly successful business from the country, putting politics ahead of the interests of Saudi consumers." Two days later, beIN Sports' license to broadcast in  Saudi Arabia was officially revoked. By other countries. In April 2019, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) published its annual Special 301 Report on U.S. trade barriers created by insufficient protection of intellectual property rights. The report designated beoutQ as a "notorious market", stating that despite claimed efforts by local officials to seize the beoutQ boxes, "such devices nevertheless continue to be widely available and are generally unregulated in Saudi Arabia", and that the country "has not taken sufficient steps to address the purported role of Arabsat in facilitating beoutQ's piracy activities." Saudi Arabia was also added to the  report's "Priority Watch List", for its "failure to address longstanding IP concerns and the further deterioration of IP protection and enforcement within its borders." In January 2020, the European Commission similarly placed Saudi Arabia on its priority watch list for violations of European intellectual property rights, citing the country's inaction against the service. By sports bodies. FIFA attempted to indirectly negotiate a deal with beIN to sub-license the Saudi team matches and final of the 2018 FIFA World Cup to a Saudi Arabian broadcaster. However, no deal was reached, and beoutQ ultimately broadcast the entire tournament from  various sources, including beIN and the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (who was offering Arabic-language broadcasts). 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 politically-motivated, and accusing the AFC of colluding with the Saudi Arabian Football Federation to violate its contract. In June 2019, Serie A's new chief executive officer, CEO Luigi De Siervo, stated that he would not rule out pulling Saudi Arabia's hosting rights to the Supercoppa in response to the beoutQ controversy, stating that "we have already taken legal action, we will start shortly to make a strong campaign towards our Government and other Governments to bring the beoutQ phenomenon to the total reduction." In July 2019, FIFA, the AFC, the  Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A, and UEFA issued a joint statement condemning beoutQ, and urged Saudi authorities to take "swift and decisive action" against the broadcaster. The parties stated that they "have reached the conclusion, regrettably, that it is now not possible to retain legal counsel in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia which is willing or able to act on our behalf". Settlement of the dispute. In January 2021, Qatar and Saudi Arabia agreed to a resolution of their diplomatic crisis. After the resolution, it was reported that restaurants in Riyadh had begun to screen beIN Sports programming via satellite . 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.