Middle East: beIN Sports to be authorised to broadcast in Saudi Arabia once again

The Qatari pay-TV group beIN Sports will be authorised to broadcast once again in Saudi Arabia after a ban of over four years, according to multiple sources on 06/10/2021. Saudi Arabia had reopened its airspace and land and sea borders with Qatar on 04/01/2021. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain had announced the severing of their trade and diplomatic relations with Qatar on 05/06/2017. Since that date, beIN Media Group's pay-TV channels had no longer been broadcast in Saudi Arabia.

The sports competitions whose broadcasting rights were held by the Qatari group in the MENA zone, such as the FIFA World Cup, the UEFA Champions League, Premier League, LaLiga Santander, Serie A TIM, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 Uber Eats, were only accessible via illegal means and mass piracy had developed in Saudi Arabia, notably via the pirate entity beoutQ.

beoutQ has now been shut down and beIN Sports has also been approached by Saudi Arabia to settle the $1bn (€860m) arbitration procedure launched by the Qatari group against it through the WTO (World Trade Organization) on…