The Brazen Bootlegging of a Multibillion-Dollar Sports Network (nytimes.com)

What do you do when your multibillion dollar sports network has been stolen? For the last several days, executives at Qatar's beIN Sports, which functions as the ESPN of the Middle East, have been pondering the same question. For the last several months, live coverage of beIN Sports feed is being broadcast on nearly a dozen beoutQ channels, a bootlegging operation seemingly based in Saudi Arabia, whose roots lie in the bitter political dispute between Qatar and a coalition of countries led by its largest neighbors, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. From a report: The coalition countries have subjected Qatar to a punishing blockade over the past year. Those countries last year accused Qatar of supporting terrorism and criticized its relationship with Iran, an ally of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. They enacted an embargo, cut off diplomatic ties and set up the blockade of the energy-rich emirate, closing Qatar's access to many of the region's ports and much of its airspace. Qatar has denied the allegations and has claimed it has assisted the United States in its war on terrorism.

Now, one month before the start of the World Cup, the world's most-watched sporting event and beIN's signature property, the audacious piracy operation is positioned to illicitly deliver the tournament's 64 games to much of the Middle East. Qatar, despite abundant resources, has been powerless to stop it. Decoder boxes embossed with the beoutQ logo have for months been available across Saudi Arabia and are now for sale in other Arab-speaking countries. A one-year subscription costs $100. A Bangladeshi worker reached by phone at Sharif Electronics in Jeddah this week said his shop has been selling the boxes for three months. "Many people buy them," he said.

Comments

Re:What's the problem?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you read the article it literally says that beoutQ is inserting their own commercial breaks, so no advertisers are getting a wider audience.

Their business model is not the issue - another company is conspiring with a foreign government to block their signals, drastically cutting their subscriber base. Then, to add insult to injury, they are re-transmitting the exact same content, without paying for it, to the subscribers they are no longer allowed to sell to AND inserting their own advertising.

The last paragraph of the article says it best “They’ve created a brand without any acquisitions.”

Huh.

[h33t l4x0r]

So I guess Muhammad never weighted in strongly on signal piracy. I guess it's ok then.

Re: What's the problem?

[Anonymous Coward]

What are the chances its a secret subsidiary of the same company? If they don't complain at all, people would assume it is and shut it down. By gently complaining, it seems like an external entity, so they get to keep those external ad dollars coming in (possibly tax free). It sure makes it easier to insert those ads on the fly.

Many ways around that.

[robbak]

One issue is that in this area of the world, pay TV is delivered by satellite. Everyone in a region receives the same encrypted broadcast, and it is decrypted by secret keys inside the decoder box. If you have the money, separating that decryption module and capturing the decrypted video stream is child's play. Even where it is delivered by cable, the same signal is delivered, encrypted, to many customers, so this sort of work could determine which suburb they are capturing in - which isn't much use, as they would only capture from one site for a few minutes at a time.

And then you have to be using a way to mark it that doesn't degrade service for your customers, isn't detectable by your target (or they'll just strip it), and isn't destroyed by re-encoding.

Re:Many ways around that.

[tlhIngan]

One issue is that in this area of the world, pay TV is delivered by satellite. Everyone in a region receives the same encrypted broadcast, and it is decrypted by secret keys inside the decoder box. If you have the money, separating that decryption module and capturing the decrypted video stream is child's play. Even where it is delivered by cable, the same signal is delivered, encrypted, to many customers, so this sort of work could determine which suburb they are capturing in - which isn't much use, as they would only capture from one site for a few minutes at a time.

And then you have to be using a way to mark it that doesn't degrade service for your customers, isn't detectable by your target (or they'll just strip it), and isn't destroyed by re-encoding.

The technology does exist, though. DirecTV and Dish Network have the exact same problems, and still have methods around it, some very creative (and exploding them in the final minutes of the Superbowl so all the pirates get to miss the excitement).

And cable providers have individually addressable boxes nowadays - you have to "activate" them which basically programs them with the necessary decryption keys. And it's enough so that it's generally a pain in the butt.

It's even a sport between the pirates and the satellite

Copied

[Meneth]

It's not "stolen", it's copied.

Hm

[Fencepost]

If there's no legal distribution of their content within Saudi Arabia, perhaps they should start making sure that most of the content of interest to Saudis also includes strong subversive and anti-government propaganda. After all, it's not like they're transmitting it to Saudi Arabia.

grimy arse

[Hognoxious]

Those countries last year accused Qatar of supporting terrorism

The words "pot" and "kettle" spring to mind.

Re:What's the problem?

[stephanruby]

This problem is actually super easy to solve.

Insert random overlays that criticize the Saudis and the Saudi royal family.

Once that happens, the Saudis will censor the bootleg channel themselves. That's it. Problem solved.

Saudi

[dehachel12]

>Those countries last year accused Qatar of supporting terrorism
That's rich coming from Saudi-Arabia