BBC and Sky looking for an EU response against pirate broadcaster beoutQ
The BBC & Sky are the latest organisations to denounce Saudi based pirate broadcaster beoutQ
The BBC & Sky are the latest organisations to take action against Saudi Arabian based broadcaster beoutQ for the continued illegal broadcast of their content.
As reported in British newspaper The Guardian, both broadcasters have penned letters to Anna Malmström, the European commissioner for trade, outlining their concerns and backing a formal EU protest or démarche to the Saudi Government on beoutQ.
Increasingly content from the BBC & Sky has been used on the beoutQ service which is broadcast by Arabsat who is based in Saudi Arabia.
In their letter, Sky highlighted the danger poised by beoutQ, and it's threat to their intellectual property. “threats posed to European broadcasters and rights owners by a relatively new, but rapidly growing, source of audiovisual piracy, namely the BeoutQ service”.
It added: “[Sky] understands that [the directorate general of trade] is planning imminently to launch a démarche towards the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia authorities regarding the issue. The purpose of this letter is to confirm Sky’s full support for that démarche.”
Whilst the BBC added that benoutQ's illegal activity has had an adverse effect on the broadcaster's finances and licensing deals across Europe.
“The availability of the BBC channels and content via BeoutQ’s pirate activity will adversely impact BBC Studios’ ability to license these channels to partners throughout Europe and also the ability of our European partners to sell subscriptions to their television services,”
The actions of the two British broadcasters means that a host of international sport & media organisations have condemned the actions of beoutQ and their continued illegal broadcasting of pirated content. This includes the 2018 FIFA World Cup, along with a host of European football leagues including La Liga, Serie A & the Bundesliga.
Earlier in the year, The Premier League announced that it was seeking legal action against beoutQ.
Whilst a host of other high profile organisations such as FIFA, UEFA, LaLiga, Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL), The Confederation of African Football (CAF), All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), United States Tennis Association (USTA), French Tennis Federation (FFT), Tennis Australia (TA), Association Of Tennis Professionals (ATP), Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and the governing body of Formula 1 the FIA. Have all made similar statements condemning the actions of beoutQ.