An investigation into rogue Saudi channel beoutQ’s activities has confirmed it used satellite infrastructure owned by Arabsat to illegally broadcast football matches.

The rights holders of various football competitions, including FIFA, the AFC, UEFA, the Bundesliga, LaLiga, the Premier League, Ligue 1 and Lega Serie A, on Monday collectively released a statement following an independent investigative report by MarkMonitor into the actions 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 had commissioned a leading industry body, MarkMonitor, to conduct research and produce a detailed and independent technical analysis of beoutQ's operations,” the statement said.

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,” the statement added.

The rights holders added that “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,” the statement concluded.

The full MarkMonitor report can be found at https://img.fifa.com/image/upload/bsaawfqlbtm3vdubuehl.pdf