Doha: beIN MEDIA GROUP (“beIN”), the global sports, media, and entertainment group and its partner Cable Network Egypt (CNE), the distributors of encrypted television and radio channels in Egypt, are preparing to take legal action against major pirates in Egypt ahead of this week’s UEFA Champions League (UCL) and CAF Champions League (CCL) finals - of which beIN’s  flagship sports channel beIN SPORTS holds the exclusive broadcasting rights in the Middle East and North Africa.

The direct theft and piracy of beIN’s channels - and of the wider entertainment industry - is a catastrophic threat to the quality and range of content that broadcasters of all sizes can offer, especially those of mammoth international sports leagues.

Over the past few months, beIN and CNE have been closely monitoring beIN’s exclusive broadcasting rights and found that they continue to be publicly violated in commercial shops, stores, and hotels in Egypt by entities who do not hold the necessary commercial licenses from beIN. To protect its legal rights and, ultimately, help secure the future of live sports, beIN and CNE are planning to take immediate and effective legal measures in this key market, in coordination with the concerned law enforcement authorities; seeking immediate legal recourse to legally punish the perpetrators, as well as to be compensated from those in violation.

As such, beIN and CNE have issued a final warning to urge any person or entity to cease any current illegal infringement immediately. As both the highly anticipated UCL and CCL finals are fast approaching this week, the broadcaster has warned that it will be extra vigilant and will not hesitate to take all the necessary legal measures to stop the theft of its rights going forward.

beIN are pioneers in combatting the harmful business of piracy, taking a truly data-driven approach to protect its core business and the industry. Most recently, in April 2022, they joined the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, the world’s leading coalition dedicated to protecting the ecosystem and reducing digital piracy. The partnership is just one of the many ways beIN will continue to bring legal enforcement actions against the pirates who are seriously threatening the services and productions that paying consumers deserve.

-Ends-

About beIN MEDIA GROUP

beIN MEDIA GROUP is a leading independent global media group and one of the foremost sports & entertainment networks in the world. The group distributes and produces an unrivalled array of entertainment, live sport and major international events across 5 continents, 43 countries and in 9 different languages spanning Europe, North America, Asia, Australasia and the Middle East & North Africa (MENA).

beIN MEDIA GROUP’s flagship sports network, beIN SPORTS, holds the single largest portfolio of sports rights of any global broadcaster; and through its iconic MIRAMAX film studio, beIN holds an extensive library of Hollywood blockbusters while having a growing presence in series and movies production and distribution, as well as in the digital space. beIN MEDIA GROUP acquired Digiturk, the leading pay-tv operator in Turkey, in August 2016; and now has over 55 million subscribers worldwide.

For more information on beIN MEDIA GROUP, please contact: mediaoffice@bein.com.

About CABLE NETWORK EGYPT

CABLE NETWORK EGYPT (CNE), distributes encrypted television and radio content represented by specialized television and radio channels of all kinds using various modern means of broadcasting and conditional access in accordance with the Egyptian legislation and media policies. Add to these,   the required integrated services of supplying, installing, selling and maintaining decoding devices or any other devices and supplies, as well as providing the necessary sale, subscribing and supporting services to the subscriber residents inside the Arab Republic of Egypt to ensure the quality of dealing and the continuous and stable reception of distributed contents. These integrated services are provided through the company's branches, distributors, authorized agents, other direct sales channels or through the direct commercial sale for groups in clubs, hotels, cafés, private residential communities, restaurants, companies, institutions, shops to ensure that the requirements of stakeholders / interested parties are fulfilled.