ARABS have little to cheer in this year’s World Cup. The four teams from the region lost all seven of their early matches. Russia and Uruguay beat both Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Morocco beat itself, scoring an own goal against Iran. Tunisia lost to England. The real competition is off the pitch: in the Middle East, even watching the game is fractious.
A Qatari network, beIN Sports, paid a small fortune for the broadcast rights. It had planned to recoup that by charging fees of up to $150 per subscriber. But last year four Arab countries imposed a blockade on Qatar. The embargo excluded beIN from its largest market, Saudi Arabia, where it had 900,000 customers. And it left Saudis wondering how they would watch their team, which had qualified for the first time since 2006.
The answer came from a mysterious group of hackers. In August someone launched a bootleg version of beIN, cheekily known as “beoutQ”. With a cheap decoder, Saudis (and other Arabs) can watch with only a slight delay....Continue reading
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