As European soccer’s top leagues begin another season, the world’s biggest pirate television network is back on the airwaves too.
All 10 games played on the opening weekend of the Premier League last weekend were broadcast on beoutQ, a sophisticated Arab-language channel whose brazen theft of sports broadcasts has emerged as a high-profile battleground in the bitter and protracted dispute between Qatar and a group of its neighbors led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The rights to show Premier League games — as well as those in the UEFA Champions League and France’s Ligue 1, among others — in the Middle East are owned by the Qatar-based beIN Media Group, which has committed billions of dollars to acquire valuable sports properties for its beIN Sports network.