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Tribune News Network
Doha
It seems that the game is over and the right has been retained. It has recently been noticed that the Saudi pirate channel 'beout Q', which was illegally broadcasting beIN Sports' proprietary content, has gone into a phase of silence.
This coincided with Advisor to the Saudi Royal court Saud al Qahtani, who was previously promoting such a channel, now apparently calling for combating piracy.
A few months ago, Qahtani said the Saudis would watch all the world football championships for free or at a nominal price and confirmed on his Twitter account that he had a clear plan to break the monopoly of beIN Sports. But now he appears to stress the need to stop piracy and protect the rights of beIN Sports, a matter which shows another retreat that has become a prominent feature of the recent Saudi political stands.
At the same time, Okaz, a Saudi daily, said a Saudi crackdown on piracy had led to the seizure of 5,000 receivers. Earlier, prominent sports institutions have called on the Saudi authorities to immediately close the pirate channel 'beout Q'. The alliance includes 10 sports institutions such as FIFA, Premier League, UEFA, Spanish La Liga, France Ligue, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and beIN Sports.
FIFA Chief Commercial Officer Philippe Le Floc'h said the global football governing body deals with intellectual property rights violations seriously and works to curb such violations.
The Director of broadcasting at the Premier League, Paul Molnar, said,"Any piracy of this property is not acceptable and we will stand against it," he said.
Meanwhile, beIN Sports has contracted with a private company to combat broadcast piracy through the use of advanced electronic technology ASiD, which provides robust content protection.
