War of words on Wimbledon piracy claim

[Len]

The Saudi Ministry of Media has rejected “baseless Wimbledon claims”, according to local Arab media, sparking a war of words.

Calling the claims “inaccurate and irresponsible”, the ministry denies that the pirate operator beoutQ is Saudi basede, but in reality is “based in either Cuba or Colombia.”

“Given the current diplomatic impasse between Qatar and numerous Arab nations, including Saudi Arabia, claims emanating from Al Jazeera that beoutQ is based in the Kingdom are highly suspect.”

Last week, the world’s tennis governing bodies have joined forces to publicly condemn and call for the immediate closure of the illegal Saudi Arabian-based piracy operation, beoutQ.

Over the past year, a whole variety of world tennis content has been illegally broadcast across the Middle East and North Africa region by the pirate television operation beoutQ, which in turn distributes the content on the Riyadh-based satellite provider Arabsat, without any rights whatsoever to do so.

“Over the past 12 months beoutQ has been brazenly stealing the broadcast feeds of international tennis tournaments and distributing them illegally on a satellite provider called Arabsat. The premium sports content is then viewable on illegal beoutQ boxsets and online, in many cases for free across MENA,” the combined tennis governing bodies said in. a statement,.

“This mass-theft of tennis TV rights has prompted the world tennis organisations to come together to condemn and call for an immediate end to the illegal exploitation of its intellectual property.

“Industrial-scale illegal piracy of this nature is of great concern as it risks significantly damaging the value of the commercial broadcast rights that tennis governing bodies and rights holders around the world rely on to fund the sport at a professional and amateur level.

“However, tennis is just one sport that is suffering at the hands of the piracy. Both FIFA and UEFA have issued statements in recent weeks denouncing beoutQ, joined by further condemnation from other sports, major broadcasters and rights holders around the world who have also had broadcast feeds and content stolen.

“The case of beoutQ is especially troubling due to the unparalleled sophistication and the extensive period of time over which the commercial-scale theft has been allowed to continue.”