beoutQ Piracy
In August 2017, “beoutQ” was launched from Saudi Arabia - illegally broadcasting via satellite and streaming over the internet premium sports and entertainment content worth billions of dollars.
beoutQ set-top boxes are openly sold from shops across Saudi Arabia, illegally marketed with the logos of all the major European football leagues, and very heavily promoted online. beoutQ set-top boxes have also been sold through localized networks in other countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region too. The crisis in piracy and IP theft is escalating, with beoutQ itself now being “pirated”. beoutQ “channels” are being hacked and re-distributed by other pirates across MENA – and even around the world – via internet streaming.
Like all pirates, beoutQ operates in hiding, but investigations have revealed the identity of some of those behind it. It is also well-known that beoutQ uses Arabsat for its satellite broadcasts. Yet, despite being given this information, the Saudi authorities and Arabsat refuse to stop beoutQ, and the Saudi Government has closed their courts to any legal claims by beIN against the copyright infringement.
To view the detailed report from Leaders on the story of beoutQ's piracy of the world of sports and entertainment, please click here
Since August 2019, the Arabsat satellite which broadcast the ten live branded beoutQ channels has been down, but beoutQ’s piracy continues with beoutQ set-top boxes still giving access to 1000s of TV channels through illegal IPTV apps, including beIN SPORTS, Sky Sports, BT Sport, Canal+, Fox, ESPN, BBC and other broadcasters.
Pirated Sports Content
beoutQ set-top boxes are sold with a subscription to 10 “beoutQ” satellite sports channels, which are broadcast on satellites operated by the Riyadh-headquartered Arabsat. The content broadcast on the beoutQ sports satellite channels is entirely stolen. It has included all the major international football competitions, as well as other major international sports, such as Tennis, NFL, NBA, Formula 1, Olympics, and WWE.
Most of the stolen sports content broadcast on the beoutQ satellite channels is taken from live broadcasts by beIN SPORTS, and re-broadcast illegally by beoutQ over Arabsat. However, beoutQ has also stolen its sports content from other regional and international broadcasters.
For a summary of pirated content by country, please click here
Pirated Movies and Television Entertainment Content
In addition to the pirate satellite channels, the beoutQ set-top boxes stream pirated live television, and on-demand movie content from all over the world, via internet applications.
The pirate applications include “ShowBox” – known as the “Netflix of Piracy” – which provides illegal access to over 10,000 major international movie and television series, including: Ocean’s 8 (Warner Bros. Pictures), Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom (Universal Pictures), Death Wish (MGM Studios), The Incredibles 2 (Disney), Wonder (Lionsgate), Sherlock Gnomes (Paramount Pictures), The Walking Dead (AMC), Game of Thrones (HBO), Altered Carbon (Netflix), Westworld (HBO), American Horror Story (20th Century Fox), The Equalizer 2 (Sony), Elementary (CBS), Victoria (ITV) and Doctor Who (BBC).
Other pirate applications offer between 2,300 and 4,000 live television channels from all over the world, thousands of movies in different languages, and up to 35,000 TV show episodes.
At a time when Saudi Arabia is opening cinemas and attracting investment by movie studios from around the world, Saudi consumers are already learning how to steal all this content for free – all courtesy of beoutQ.
Government Response
In a major governmental escalation of the global battle against the theft of world sport and entertainment by beoutQ, the US Government published two reports in April 2019 that directly condemned and called for an end to the rampant Saudi-based piracy operation.
On the same day, the UK Government was also directly challenged in UK Parliament to take decisive action against beoutQ’s unchecked piracy of content from the UK’s creative industries.