BeIN Sports France Makes Fight Against Illegal Streaming A 'Priority'

BeIN Sports France President Youssef Al-Obaidly said that the fight against streaming has become a “priority” for the media company, according to L’ÉQUIPE. With losses from streaming estimated at €200M ($223M) for Canal+ and beIN Sports, Al-Obaidly said that his company “has started the necessary steps to stop it.” He said, “We have started to demand the closure of pirating sites, and we will continue to do so because we think that this handicaps the entire French audiovisual landscape.” BeIN notably listed the “presence of around 100 sites that illegally offered steaming matches” during Euro 2016. Al-Obaidly also spoke on the exclusive distribution agreement with Canal+ that was “shot down by the Competition Authority last June.” He said, “First, I was disappointed, obviously, because it was something that seemed good for beIN. ... We defended the interest of our project during the hearings but from the legal perspective, most of the work was put on Canal+ which is under restrictions until 2017” (L’ÉQUIPE, 9/19).