MPs are to probe the mass piracy of BBC shows in Saudi Arabia, which is threatening the £240million the corporation makes from selling its work around the globe.
And last night it emerged Beeb bosses wrote to Riyadh officials two years ago demanding the illegal broadcasting of an array of programmes through a channel called beoutQ is stopped.
They include Killing Eve, Doctor Who, Sherlock, War & Peace, McMafia and Hey Duggee. The satellite transmissions ended in August but they continue to be streamed online.
Now, Tory MP Giles Watling, a former BBC actor who sits on the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, is calling on the group to investigate the activity. Mr Watling has said: “Media piracy has the potential to strangle the BBC’s income.”
BBC Worldwide had written to the Saudis demanding they shut down beoutQ. The channel was broadcast to 400 million people across the Middle East and Europe on Riyadh-based station Arabsat.
The Saudi government, which admitted it knew journalist and critic Jamal Khashoggi was killed in its Istanbul embassy, is a majority shareholder.
News of the MPs’ probe comes in the wake of a proposed £300million takeover of Newcastle United by a Saudi investment group led by tycoon Yasir Al-Rumayyan.
