Saudi Arabia blocks official World Cup streaming channel
Subscribers to official streaming site unable to access event in the Kingdom | Move comes months after lifting of four-year ban over illegal streaming of Premier League.
The official FIFA World Cup broadcaster beIN Sports has apparently been barred from streaming the international event via its streaming channel TOD.tv.
Subscribers to the channel in the Middle East and North Africa found their access to the event blocked at the start of the games on November 20, with the only explanation coming four days later in a message from TOD.tv saying it was experiencing an “outage”, according to Reuters.
Users of the TOD.tv page from within Saudi Arabia are told: “Sorry, the requested page is violating the regulations of the ministry of media.”
Tod.tv subscribers took to Twitter to vent their frustration, with many demanding a refund of their $80 subscription fee, which they had paid to access the tournament.
Four-year ban
It is not the first time the Qatari broadcaster has been blocked by Saudi Arabian authorities, having imposed a four-year ban in 2017 following a dispute over the illegal streaming of Premier League football matches.
The Saudi Kingdom blocked beIN Media from enforcing its IP, broadcasting, or streaming in the country, enabling pirate sports broadcasters such as beoutQ to fill the gap in providing sports content in the region.
The Kingdom had cited security concerns in justifying the ban, but the World Trade Organization found that this was not enough to explain the lack of criminal sanctions against such piracy, and accused the state of failing to meet its TRIPS Agreement obligations.
This ban was lifted in October 2021 and beIN had resumed its service in the region until it was suddenly reimposed at the start of the World Cup.
WIPR has approached beIN, TOD.tv and Saudi Arabia’s Media Ministry for comment.
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