The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has reissued an invitation to tender (ITT) for its Saudi Arabian media package to show club and international soccer from 2021 to 2024, after cancelling BeIN Sports’ exclusive rights deal.
The package from the regional soccer governing body includes rights to national team tournament the Asian Cup and the Asian qualifying competition for the 2022 Fifa World Cup. Rights to club competitions the AFC Champions League and AFC Cup, plus the 2022 Women’s Asian Cup, are also included in the package on offer when bidding starts 9th May.
In a statement released on its website, the AFC said: ‘The ITT notes that the AFC media rights partner will need to demonstrate state of the art broadcasting, engaging and informative programming and creative as well as innovative media output which showcases the competitions and encourages their continued growth – both at national and club level.
‘The ITT adds that the amount of interest that the AFC has witnessed in its rights offerings so far demonstrate the ever-growing quality of the tournaments staged by the AFC and the rapidly growing engagement with football lovers in the game’s largest Confederation. We are sure that the rights offering in Saudi Arabia will be eagerly contested.’
The reissue comes after the AFC announced in March that it had cancelled BeIN Sports’ exclusive broadcasting rights in Saudi Arabia citing “illegal broadcasting” of its content and “systemic violations it committed against [Saudi] regulations” in its decision.
The AFC tender comes amid a period of heavy tension in the region and against the backdrop of rife piracy. Over the past year, BeIN Sports has been the main target of the BeoutQ illegal streaming operation based in Riyadh that sprung up after the 2017 trade ban implemented on Qatar by Saudi Arabia left viewers in the latter nation without access to the Doha-based broadcaster’s output.
Since then, the Saudi-backed pirate network has aired live coverage of major sporting events with rights held by BeIN Sports. These include the Premier League, Formula One and Grand Slam tennis.
It has led to a series of actions taken by Qatar and BeIN Sports to try and stem the flow of piracy.
In December last year, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) approved Qatar’s request to form a panel that would investigate Saudi Arabia for violating its obligations under the WTO’s guidelines on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights.
Earlier in October, BeIN launched a US$1 billion international investment arbitration against Saudi Arabia over its widespread piracy. It later pressured the US government to place Saudi Arabia on its Priority Watch List to try and bring down BeoutQ.
In response to being stripped of its media rights, BeIN Sports has said it will take legal action against the AFC for a “material breach of our multi-million-dollar regional broadcast agreement.”
The broadcaster has described the AFC’s decision as “politically driven” and believes it will only give further rise to illegal streaming in Saudi Arabia, but was unable to officially comment for legal reasons.
Per the previous deal between the AFC and BeIN, if the body chooses to amend the manner in which it elects to market its 2021 to 2024 period MENA rights, it is required to offer the broadcaster the right to match any third party offers it receives. BeIN also expects the AFC to comply with its contractual obligations to supply details of third party offers it receives in respect of both the ITT process for KSA, and any process it runs within any other MENA territories.
BeIN has now appointed legal counsel for its ongoing arbitration with the AFC and it is understood that the case is progressing apace.
Qatari-broadcaster BeIN Sports claims the decision is “politically driven” amid the BeoutQ piracy saga.
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has reissued an invitation to tender (ITT) for its Saudi Arabian media package to show club and international soccer from 2021 to 2024, after cancelling BeIN Sports’ exclusive rights deal.
The package from the regional soccer governing body includes rights to national team tournament the Asian Cup and the Asian qualifying competition for the 2022 Fifa World Cup. Rights to club competitions the AFC Champions League and AFC Cup, plus the 2022 Women’s Asian Cup, are also included in the package on offer when bidding starts 9th May.
In a statement released on its website, the AFC said: ‘The ITT notes that the AFC media rights partner will need to demonstrate state of the art broadcasting, engaging and informative programming and creative as well as innovative media output which showcases the competitions and encourages their continued growth – both at national and club level.
‘The ITT adds that the amount of interest that the AFC has witnessed in its rights offerings so far demonstrate the ever-growing quality of the tournaments staged by the AFC and the rapidly growing engagement with football lovers in the game’s largest Confederation. We are sure that the rights offering in Saudi Arabia will be eagerly contested.’
The reissue comes after the AFC announced in March that it had cancelled BeIN Sports’ exclusive broadcasting rights in Saudi Arabia citing “illegal broadcasting” of its content and “systemic violations it committed against [Saudi] regulations” in its decision.
The AFC tender comes amid a period of heavy tension in the region and against the backdrop of rife piracy. Over the past year, BeIN Sports has been the main target of the BeoutQ illegal streaming operation based in Riyadh that sprung up after the 2017 trade ban implemented on Qatar by Saudi Arabia left viewers in the latter nation without access to the Doha-based broadcaster’s output.
Since then, the Saudi-backed pirate network has aired live coverage of major sporting events with rights held by BeIN Sports. These include the Premier League, Formula One and Grand Slam tennis.
It has led to a series of actions taken by Qatar and BeIN Sports to try and stem the flow of piracy.
In December last year, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) approved Qatar’s request to form a panel that would investigate Saudi Arabia for violating its obligations under the WTO’s guidelines on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights.
Earlier in October, BeIN launched a US$1 billion international investment arbitration against Saudi Arabia over its widespread piracy. It later pressured the US government to place Saudi Arabia on its Priority Watch List to try and bring down BeoutQ.
In response to being stripped of its media rights, BeIN Sports has said it will take legal action against the AFC for a “material breach of our multi-million-dollar regional broadcast agreement.”
The broadcaster has described the AFC’s decision as “politically driven” and believes it will only give further rise to illegal streaming in Saudi Arabia, but was unable to officially comment for legal reasons.
Per the previous deal between the AFC and BeIN, if the body chooses to amend the manner in which it elects to market its 2021 to 2024 period MENA rights, it is required to offer the broadcaster the right to match any third party offers it receives. BeIN also expects the AFC to comply with its contractual obligations to supply details of third party offers it receives in respect of both the ITT process for KSA, and any process it runs within any other MENA territories.
BeIN has now appointed legal counsel for its ongoing arbitration with the AFC and it is understood that the case is progressing apace.
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