Piracy forces lay-offs at beIN Media
June 20, 2019
By Chris Forrester
The blatant piracy of its content is having a very negative impact at Qatar’s beIN media and sports broadcaster.
With its signals widely pirated by beoutQ, beIN says it has laid off around 18 per cent of its workforce, affecting more than 300 staffers. beIN says that the piracy is directly impacting its revenues, and being – in effect – banned by Saudi Arabia, formerly its best market for viewers, means that subs have dried up.
“In light of these challenges we have taken some difficult decisions to right-size our MENA business, but these decisions will secure our business for the future – we are not going anywhere,” said a beIN spokesperson in a statement.
As well as the staff cutbacks, Bloomberg is reporting that other difficult decisions are being made, including trimming its appetite for extra exclusive sports rights.
beIN Media Group is increasing its diversity and over the past three years has acquired Turkish pay-TV operator DigiTurk and in 2016 the Hollywood movie and TV studio Miramax.