DUBAI • Saudi Arabia's General Authority for Competition (GAC) has cancelled the licence of Qatari broadcaster beIN Sports, which has been barred from broadcasting in the kingdom since mid-2017 due to a diplomatic dispute between the two countries.
GAC said on Tuesday it was also fining beIN Sports 10 million riyals (S$3.7 million) for "monopolistic practices", a charge the broadcaster denied.
BeIN holds regional broadcasting rights for several major global sporting events, including the English Premier League.
The broadcaster was initially blocked in Saudi under a boycott imposed when Riyadh and its allies severed diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar in 2017 over Doha's alleged support of terrorism, a charge Qatar denies.
GAC said it found beIN Sports had "abused its dominant position through several monopolistic practices" related to what it described as an exclusive sports broadcast bundle for Euro 2016.
In a statement, BeIN dismissed the decision as "nonsensical". It said: "The idea that permanently banning a leading competitor from a market could in any way promote competition is... absurd."
In 2018, Qatar filed a complaint with the World Trade Organisation (WTO), saying Saudi Arabia was blocking beIN from broadcasting in the kingdom and said it had refused to take effective action against alleged piracy of beIN's content by beoutQ, a commercial-scale pirating operation.
A WTO panel last month found Saudi Arabia had breached global rules on intellectual property rights by failing to prosecute beoutQ, while supporting Riyadh's view that it could block the Qatari broadcaster from obtaining legal counsel in the kingdom on grounds of national security.
BeoutQ is widely available in Saudi Arabia but Riyadh insists it is not based there, and that the government is committed to protecting IP rights.
The Saudi sovereign wealth fund is seeking to buy Premier League club Newcastle United but the WTO ruling could have serious implications for its proposed £300 million (S$525.2 million) takeover.
Premier League football chief executive Richard Masters admitted last month that the deal was "complicated" and with this latest move, there is now also no legal way for anyone in Saudi Arabia to watch England's top tier.
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
