beIN Media Group and the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) have praised the shutdown of four TV pirates in Egypt.
The two organisations worked together on the removal of the four Cairo-based operations that had been pirating live content from beIN’s sports channels.
Between them Goalarab.com, Yalla-Shoot-7sry.com, yalla-shoot.us, yallashoot-news.com had attracted over 1.8 million users in Egypt and 4.8 million users globally in May 2022 alone.
Since the start of this year, an estimated 9 million users in Egypt and 24 million users globally watched illegal content stolen from beIN SPORTS channels.
“The successful action against these four illegal piracy operations highlights the real-world value of the new partnership between beIN and ACE,” said Jan van Voorn, executive vice president and chief of Global Content Protection for the Motion Picture Association and head of ACE. “Working together, we have the network, the resources and the expertise needed to tackle the serious threat piracy poses to media companies all over the world and to protect the legal marketplace for content creators.”
A beIN spokesperson added: “Broadcasting piracy threatens sport now and in the future; these sites take funding away from sports fans, players and clubs of all levels and leagues. Actions like those undertaken by Egyptian law enforcement agencies are a huge victory. In concert with ACE, we collectively have the means to support takedowns of this nature throughout the region and will continue to do so to protect the leagues, fellow broadcasters and the entire sporting ecosystem.”
Three individuals were arrested and domains, assets, and their IT equipment seized. The domains are now controlled by ACE and are redirecting viewers to watch the content on legal platforms.
