Major football leagues are continuing to work together on the issue of piracy of rights-holder material in the Middle East. FIFA, the AFC, UEFA, the Bundesliga, LaLiga, Lega Serie A, LFP and the Premier League have issued a statement following the publication of an investigative report into the operations of beoutQ.
“As rights holders of globally followed sports events, whose intellectual property rights have been breached on a systematic and widespread basis by the pirate broadcaster known as beoutQ, we have commissioned a leading industry body, MarkMonitor, to conduct research and produce a detailed and independent technical analysis of beoutQ’s operations.
The report confirms without question that beoutQ’s pirate broadcasts have been transmitted using satellite infrastructure owned and operated by Arabsat.
The contents of the report are today being published in full on the rights holders’ websites to provide transparency about the facts of the case and to demonstrate the seriousness with which we, as global rights holders, view this issue.
As previously communicated, we have been frustrated in our attempts to pursue a formal copyright claim against beoutQ in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and, while we have received reports that beoutQ transmissions are currently disrupted, we nevertheless call on Arabsat and all other satellite providers to stop (and going forward agree to refrain from) providing a platform for piracy, which harms not just legitimate licensees, fans and players but also the sports that it abuses.
Cutting off its access to transmission services would be a major step in the fight to stop beoutQ. We all, individually and collectively, remain committed to bringing an end to international sports piracy.”
BeoutQ pirates all of the output of Qatar-based BeIN Media Group, including sporting fixtures for which it holds the rights for most Middle East territories.
According to the New York Times, BeIN has been a loss-making enterprise since its inception, but it said the loss of access to the market in Saudi Arabia, its region’s biggest, was the reason it eliminated hundreds of jobs — representing about a fifth of its employees — in June. A rival network in the Gulf, OSN, has withdrawn from all sports broadcasting except cricket, with its officials blaming piracy as a key factor driving the decision.
In an unprecedented collaboration, football leagues FIFA, the AFC, UEFA, the Bundesliga, LaLiga, the Premier League and Lega Serie A have called on the authorities in Saudi Arabia to take action against pirate pay-TV operator BeoutQ. The seven leagues have said that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia must take “swift and decisive action” against the pirate TV company. The leagues say that they have been unable to get any Saudi Arabia-based legal firm to represent them in their efforts to shut down the operation that is taking signals of Bein and rebroadcasting them to viewers in Saudi Arabia with a different logo.
The joint statement reads:
We, the rights holders of various football competitions, collectively condemn in the strongest possible terms the ongoing theft of our intellectual property by the pirate broadcaster known as ‘beoutQ’ and call on the authorities in Saudi Arabia (KSA) to support us in ending the widespread and flagrant breaches of our intellectual property rights taking place in the country.
Since May 2018, we have collectively been working with an international legal counsel to monitor and compile evidence against beoutQ, whose broadcasts are regularly and on an industrial scale made available on an illegal basis. Following thorough analysis by technical experts of how beoutQ operates from a technical perspective, we are satisfied that beoutQ is operating specifically to target customers in KSA and is utilising the facilities of at least one KSA-based entity.
Over the past 15 months, we spoke to nine law firms in KSA, each of which either simply refused to act on our behalf or initially accepted the instruction, only later to recuse themselves.
As copyright holders we have reached the conclusion, regrettably, that it is now not possible to retain legal counsel in KSA which is willing or able to act on our behalf in filing a copyright complaint against beoutQ. We feel we have now exhausted all reasonable options for pursuing a formal copyright claim in KSA and see no alternative but to pursue beoutQ and a solution to this very serious problem of piracy by other means.
beoutQ’s infringement of our rights inevitably harms every aspect of the industry, from the rights holders to legitimate licensees, consumers and fans, participants (including players, clubs and national teams) and ultimately, the sport itself.
We have welcomed previous statements by the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information and the Saudi Government against beoutQ. However, given the scale of beoutQ’s piracy in KSA and that the piracy continues unabated, we request that the Ministry and the Saudi Government take swift and decisive action against beoutQ.
We are committed, collectively and individually, to working with all relevant authorities to combat the beoutQ piracy.
The piracy affects other sporting rights holders, including Wimbledon and Formula 1.
The AIB is saddened to learn that Les Murray, the former football broadcaster and known to football fans across Australia as “Mr Football”, has died aged 71.
Regarded by many as the voice of Australian football, Murray had been battling a long-term illness, according to his long-term employer SBS. He had retired from his role on the The World Game in July 2014, having played a major role in the game’s development in Australia since the 1980s.
In a statement, SBS said: “Les will be remembered not just for his 35-year contribution to football in Australia, but for being a much-loved colleague, mentor and friend who has left a unique legacy. To say he will be sorely missed is an understatement.
Murray pioneered football broadcasting in Australia following the launch of the National Soccer League in 1977, initially on Channel 10, and went on to become the voice of World Cup coverage on SBS for several decades. He hosted eight World Cups in total, his debut coming at Mexico 1986.
He also worked across the Asia-Pacific region as Chair of the ABU Sports Group for more than 10 years, and had been an advisor to the Association for International Broadcasting. Murray was also a member of the FIFA Ethics Committee.
Murray came to Australia from his native Hungary at the age of 11 after the 1956 uprising, without any knowledge of the English-language. Murray began his career at SBS in 1980 as a Hungarian subtitle writer, but it was his passion for football that rapidly brought him into the network’s sports team. By 1986, he was hosting SBS’s World Cup coverage. As an SBS football commentator and presenter, he covered eight World Cups before retiring in 2014.
Tributes have flown from all circles, with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, the football community and fans sharing their accolades of the lauded sports commentator.
Over his career, he championed the cause of immigrants in Australia, devoting much time to breaking down the many barriers that newcomers to the country had to face and helping to develop the country as a model of tolerance to all races. It was fitting that he worked for SBS, Australia’s multicultural network.
Les Murray will be greatly missed by his colleagues at SBS, the AIB, ABU and across the world of football and sports broadcasting.
AIB is offering its members access to daily 3′ bulletins from the Fifa Confederations Cup that opens in Brazil in June.
Produced by AIB partner Between the Posts Productions, Bulletin from Brazil will be available in two versions – one for audiences in Africa and the other for audiences across Asia and the Pacific.
With match reports, interviews with key players and more features, Bulletin from Brazil will deliver the flavour of the competition to English-language audiences across the world.
The programming is part of an expansion of AIB’s activities in the sport broadcasting genre that started with activities around the Olympic Games in London. AIB is now working on a number of initiatives on behalf of its members around the world that will deliver ever increasing value to them.
For more information about Bulletin from Brazil, talk to Edward Wilkinson at the AIB head office.
One of Asia’s leading sports executives and a football guru for the “beautiful game”, has joined the Association for International Broadcasting [AIB] as an adviser.
Les Murray (right) is known in his adopted homeland – Australia – as “Mr. Football”. He will provide a wide range of skills for the AIB as it develops its new Asian base.
In a rapidly expanding Asian market for sport, Murray’s experience in football will be vital to expanding the interests of the AIB, said its Chief Executive Simon Spanswick.
“Les will play a crucial role in our plans for Asia, especially with football properties. We intend to be an aggressive player in the market,” Spanswick said from London.
Mr. Murray was until recently the chair of the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union’s Sports Group (ABU), a position from which he retired after 12 years.
Mr. Murray, a Fifa Ethics Commissioner, is something of a legend in Asia, having covered football there for 30 years.
“We are delighted to have Les on board our new broadcast vehicle ,” said Spanswick. “He will add a tremendous amount of value to our brand, as well as our ability to attract new business,” he added.
Les Murray’s interest in sports broadcasting has roots in his boyhood love for football in his birthplace of Hungary.
After immigrating to Australia as a child refugee in 1957, he continued his passion for his beloved game and made it a life mission to convert Australians to the world’s favourite sport.
Ultimately, after he stepped into broadcasting in the late 1970s as commentator and sports presenter, the mission met with success through the exposure he brought to football on Australian television. Murray is now largely credited with football’s vast growth in awareness and popularity in his adopted country over the past 30 years.
In 1996 Murray was appointed head of sport at Australia’s multicultural broadcaster, SBS, and continued in that role for ten years. During that period he negotiated many major sports rights deals, including three FIFA World Cup contracts, the UEFA Champions League, the Tour de France and international athletics with the IAAF.
Murray has spoken at many international forums, including the United Nations, and in 2006 was awarded the Order of Australia for his services to football and sports journalism. In 2009 he was given the Australian Sports Commission’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Said Murray: “I am delighted to accept this invitation by the AIB and be given the opportunity to work with broadcasters in Asia.
“Sport and, in particular, sports broadcasting are fabulous catalysts for advancing and enriching national cultures and for empowering cultural identities.
“I am thrilled to be able to assist Asian broadcasters in achieving these goals.”
Les Murray (right) is known in his adopted homeland – Australia – as “Mr. Football”. He will provide a wide range of skills for the AIB as it develops its new Asian base.