The main French football league, Ligue de Football Professional, has condemned the illegal broadcast piracy of opening games of Ligue 1 by Saudi Arabia-based beoutQ and escalates the theft of its rights to the Directorate General for Trade at the European Commission.
LFP has said it is taking ‘beoutQ’ and Arabsat’s unauthorised and illegal exploitation of its products very seriously, and has addressed a letter to the Directorate General for Trade at the European Commission seeking support for investigating beoutQ and demanding that pressure be placed on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to act and shut down the pirate channel. The LFP has also written to Arabsat to demand that they stop ‘beoutQ’ from using its satellites to broadcast stolen content. In addition, the LFP is examining all legal options, recourse and remedies that are at its disposal.
“The LFP continues to take all necessary action to defend its interests and the interests of its broadcasters,” said Didier Quillot, LFP Executive Director General.
“Last January we participated in the creation of the Association for the Protection of Sporting Programs (APPS) with the broadcasters, the professional leagues and the sports’ federal bodies. Pirate broadcasts attack directly at the economic heart of the sport and we must unite in our struggle against this practice. We ask Arabsat and Saudi Arabia to intervene to stop the piracy of our contents.”
