Saudis seize token number of beoutQ decoders as F1 reveals it too is being pirated

Saudi Arabia has responded, somewhat derisorily, to the dispute over the piracy of Russia 2018 World Cup matches, saying it has seized 12,000 beoutQ satellite decoders in the country which have been transmitting stolen sports content.

So far every single match of the World Cup has been pirated into Saudi Arabia by beoutQ which has neither the rights to nor has paid a rights fee for the games. beoutQ has defied all cease and desist orders issued by FIFA’s rightsholder beIN Sport and told its viewers that it will continue to supply the matches.

The move is a step in the right direction in that the Saudi’s are recognising the illegality of piracy, but it is a move that will have little or no impact (if the Saudi’s have actually seized the decoders) with tens if not hundreds of thousands of decoders in operation in the country and all public viewing of matches taking place through the decoders.

The 12,000 confiscated boxes are a suspiciously similar number to the figure of 11,000 lost subscriptions to the beIN Sport service, suggesting the Saudis are taunting the Qatari rightsholder.

“12,000 devices have been confiscated in recent months, although the actual figure is in my opinion higher,” said al-Qahtani, an adviser to the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, told AFP. “Saudi Arabia respects the issue of the protection of intellectual rights and international conventions on this subject,” he added.

The problem with this statement is that Saudi clearly doesn’t have any respect for international copyright law otherwise the channel would be shut down

To date the Saudi’s appear to be protected by FIFA in this dispute who have issued a statement saying that their rightsholders need to be respected. However, the governing body appear to be doing little or nothing to protect their rightsholders as the Saudi Arabian team continues with its somewhat miserable World Cup showing.

With FIFA president Gianni Infantino having lined up a still to be approved $25 billion funding of a proposed new international calendar – with the bulk of the money expected to come from Saudi – he appears to be turning a blind eye to piracy and prepared to sacrifice the reported $200 million+ paid by beIN Sport for his own bigger picture.

The industrial scale of the beoutQ piracy was highlighted again at the weekend when Formula 1 issued a statement condemning the illegal transmission of their races by beoutQ.

“It has come to our attention that certain Formula 1 content from the 2018 FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPTM has been illegally transmitted by the channel known as beoutQ operating primarily within the MENA region,” said the statement.

“beoutQ has not acquired any rights from Formula 1 to transmit coverage of the FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP.

“Formula 1 takes intellectual property infringement of this nature extremely seriously, we are looking in to the issue and those that are involved and will take appropriate action.”

The wider issue for sport is the impact this Saudi action will have on sports rights generally and the trust broadcast buyers will have in federations selling their rights in what is already a ‘disrupted’ commercial marketplace. By not exerting its muscle FIFA’s inaction is setting a detrimental precedent for the whole of the professional sports and sports events commercial economy.