Like all pirates, the beoutQ operators don’t have the courage to operate in the open. They have made bogus claims on their website about being based in Cuba and Colombia, and even broadcast childish “Welcome to Cuba” and “Welcome to Colombia” clips on their channels to try to con the world into thinking that they are based in the Americas.
The nonsense of beoutQ’s claims did not go unchecked, with authorities in both Cuba and Colombia writing letters (below) to firmly refute any and all claims that the pirate operation is connected to them.
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However, it was never any secret that beoutQ was being operated from Saudi Arabia. Among other things, social media made this very clear:
There is overwhelming evidence placing beoutQ firmly in Saudi Arabia, including the fact that the beoutq.se website is geo-blocked to Saudi Arabia and satellite subscriptions must be validated from a Saudi IP address; its subscriptions are priced in Saudi riyals only; and its channels carry advertising for numerous Saudi brands. Indeed, even the name “beoutQ” is manifestly intended to mean “be out Qatar” – a reference to the Saudi-led blockade against Qatar.
Such is the extent of beoutQ’s theft of intellectual property rights that on 1 October 2018 beIN launched an international investment arbitration against Saudi Arabia claiming +$1 billion in damages – click on the image below for the full legal evidence against Saudi Arabia filed in the arbitration.
This led The World Trade Organization (WTO) to approve a request by the State of Qatar for the establishment of a WTO panel to adjudicate on the case brought against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) for violating the intellectual property (IP) rights of Qatari citizens and companies. The decision was taken during a session of the Dispute Settlement Body (“DSB”), which took place on December 18, 2018 in Geneva.
The complaint highlighted the various infringements and violations committed by KSA against the IP rights of Qatari citizens and companies - including the rights of television broadcasters - and the piracy committed against beIN Media Group LLC. Additionally, the complaint outlined KSA’s violation of its obligations to provide protection for IP rights holders under international treaties, as the Saudi authorities have prevented Qatari citizens and entities from exercising their most basic rights before law enforcement authorities in KSA., in order to protect and defend their IP rights.
Investigations and legal actions have also revealed the identity of some of the operators. A subpoena issued to a third party company based in the United States, whose services were being used to operate the beoutQ website, revealed that its services had been purchased by Dr Raed Khusheim. A sworn affidavit has been provided confirming that the services purchased by Dr Khusheim were used to operate the beoutQ website [link to affidavit].
Dr Khusheim is the CEO of the Saudi company, Selevision – which operates the Seevi television service.
It is also known that beoutQ is broadcast using satellites operated by Arabsat, a large regional satellite operator headquartered in Riyadh and whose largest shareholder is the Government of Saudi Arabia. Expert reports prepared by third party companies [link to NAGRA report] have confirmed that beoutQ is broadcast on Arabsat, and have also provided further evidence of the involvement of Selevision. In 2019, a French court ruled that Arabsat distributes beoutQ on its satellites, despite years of denials from the company.
beIN, and many others, have written to Arabsat, requesting that it takes down the channels [link to letter]. However, Arabsat has refused to take the channels down.
If the mountain of evidence wasn’t enough, even beoutQ said it is using Arabsat satellites.
Other international broadcasters affected by beoutQ have called for the government of Saudi Arabia to end its plague of piracy – see one example below from ELEVEN SPORTS:
On the 16th of September 2019, a joint statement by FIFA, the AFC, UEFA, the Bundesliga, LaLiga, Lega Serie A, LFP and the Premier League was released on the publication of an investigative report conducted by MarkMonitor into the operations of beoutQ. The report was showcased in full on the rights holders’ websites to provide transparency about the facts of the case and to demonstrate the seriousness of this issue (To view the full MarkMonitor report, click on the image below)
On October 2019, Leaders published a report 'beoutQ: an unprecedented piracy story' showcasing in detail the complete story of beoutQ's piracy of the world of sports and entertainment (to view the full report from Leaders, click on the image below)
In January 2020, The European Commission published a major report in which it singles out Saudi Arabia for “causing considerable harm to EU businesses” following the unprecedented two-year theft of European sport programmes by Saudi-based beoutQ and Arabsat. The report sets out priority countries – only 13 worldwide – on which “the EU will focus its action” regarding the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in third countries, including Saudi Arabia.
A copy of the report is available here (key pages 42 & 43):
https://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2020/january/tradoc_158561.pdf
In April 2020, the United States Government published its latest ‘Special 301 report’ which firmly placed Saudi Arabia on its “Priority Watch List”, related in large part to rampant piracy spurred by beoutQ. The US Government also announced an “Out-of-Cycle Review” into Saudi Arabia for its continued lack of intellectual property protection (to view the full special 301 report, click on the image below)
In June 2020, The World Trade Organization (“WTO”) – one of the world’s most-highly regarded international adjudicative bodies that oversees 164 member countries – completed an impartial, independent and detailed 1.5 year evaluation of Saudi Arabia’s conduct in relation to beoutQ’s piracy. The WTO conclusively ruled that the Government of Saudi Arabia has actively promoted and supported the beoutQ pirate operation since the beginning and has wholly breached, and is breaching, its obligations under international law to protect intellectual property rights. The WTO ruling calls upon Saudi Arabia to immediately bring itself into compliance with its international law obligations. KSA’s “national security” defence was rejected for the first time in the WTO’s history. Press here for the full WTO report.