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DUBAI--A move by the English Premier League to fight piracy in the United Kingdom and protect the ?3 billion in deals signed with BT Sports and BSkyB has left paying fans in the Middle East with only half the live soccer games previously available.

The English soccer body has asked a number of channels worldwide to broadcast one match on a Saturday at 3pm in the U.K., when the majority of games in the Premier League are played, after individuals in the U.K. were found accessing channels.

"We have become aware that live broadcasts of Premier League football intended for certain overseas territories are, in a small number of cases, being re-transmitted in the U.K," the Premier League said in an emailed statement. "We are working with some of our international broadcast partners to address this."

The Premier League has limited the number of games Qatar's Al Jazeera Sports broadcasts until the channel puts provisions in place to prevent its material being pirated, a person familiar with the matter said.

Currently, Al Jazeera subscription cards are being sold and shipped into the U.K. where individuals and owners of bars and pubs are using them in generic set top boxes that can receive the Al Jazeera signal being broadcast from the Middle East on the Nilesat and Arabsat satellites, the person said, adding that pirate companies are also redistributing the Al Jazeera broadcast over the internet for live streaming.

"There's an issue with the amount of piracy flowing from Al Jazeera into the U.K.", the same person said, adding that the "majority" of piracy in the U.K. was from the Al Jazeera broadcast. Other international channels have also been affected, including Fox Sports Italia, the person added.

Al Jazeera can continue to broadcast games not being played on Saturday at 3pm, but the limitations mean the channel is only showing half the games it paid for when buying the rights to the Premier League. It won the rights in July to broadcast all 380 games of the Premier League to the whole of the Middle East and North Africa region for the next three seasons.

A price for the rights wasn't disclosed. Abu Dhabi Media paid $360 million in the previous three-year round.

Al Jazeera is working on giving customers a subscription card that is only compatible with a certain set top box, and would therefore mean cards found in the U.K. could not work in generic set top boxes, another person familiar with the matter said. It is also working with the Premier League to manage pirates that are re-transmitting its broadcast, the person added.

In 2012, the Premier League sold the rights to broadcast games in the U.K. this season and for the next two seasons to BSkyB and BT in a ?3 billion deal, a 70% increase on the previous deal. BT has the rights to broadcast 38 games, while Sky Sports can show 116.

It isn't clear whether the Premier League was pressured to limit international broadcasts by the U.K. broadcasters. "BT is working with the Premier League and FACT to help protect the investment of customers who legitimately subscribe to BT Sport," BT said in a statement. BSkyB couldn't be reached for comment.

Posted By: SCC 28 on November 26th 2013 at 16:00:29

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