Qatar-based broadcaster beIN Sports joined 10 of its rights holders "to protest against Saudi Arabian focused web channel beoutQ," which it says is broadcasting beIN's content in Saudi Arabia without permission, according to Paul Nicholson of INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL. The website, which provides a series of links to live streaming of matches that are being broadcast by beIN, is a "thinly veiled direct assault on the Qatari group in what is becoming the softer business and political battleground of the stand-off between Qatar and Saudi Arabia." BeIN is "demanding that action is taken against beoutQ" and that piracy of its rights is stopped. The broadcaster has written twice to the Saudi Arabian government but has "not received a reply." To enforce its point and "in a bid to shut beoutQ down," beIN teamed up with FIFA, the Premier League, UEFA, La Liga, the French Professional Football League (LFP), the IOC, the All England Lawn Tennis Club, the U.S. Tennis Association, Tennis Australia, the NBA and anti-piracy body the Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance to form a lobby group (INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL, 9/18).