Saudi Arabia permanently revokes Qatar’s BeIN Sports licence

Dubai: Saudi Arabia has permanently annulled the licence of Qatar’s BeIN Sports channel for its practices that violate competition rules, it was announced on Tuesday.

The General Authority for Competition (GAC) said in a statement carried on its website and by the Saudi state — owned television. GAC also announced that it had slapped BeIN Sports with a SR10 million ($2.6 million) fine due to the alleged violations.

There was no immediate comment from beIN or Qatari authorities.

The BeIN Sports has been barred from broadcasting in the kingdom since mid-2017 over after accusing the Qatari-owned channel of illegal monopolising practices.