Riyadh: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has suspended the popular broadcast service Todd.tv affiliated with Qatar’s beIN Sports network since the start of the World Cup on November 20, local media reported.
The beIN Sports, and its online platforms, including Todd.tv, is the official broadcaster of the FIFA World Cup 2022 to fans in the Middle East and North Africa.
As per a report by Reuters, the application has been operating smoothly in the Kingdom continuously for about 10 months.
The Todd platform is owned by the Qatari “beIN” media group, which was banned in Saudi Arabia for years during the period of estrangement between the two countries, but it resumed its work in October 2021.
When entering the Todd.tv page on the Internet from inside Saudi Arabia, a message of apology appears stating that the requested page violates the regulations of the Ministry of Information.
Todd.tv also sent a message to its subscribers in the kingdom on November 24, saying they were experiencing a service outage.
The company said in an email obtained by Reuters that due to matters beyond the company’s control, it is witnessing a disruption in service in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which currently affects Todd.tv, the official partner for broadcasting the World Cup matches in Qatar 2022.
The New York Times said that this ban is surprising, especially since it comes after a directive launched by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to all government institutions to facilitate everything related to the Qatar World Cup.
“I want my money,” one subscriber told AFP, adding that his efforts to refund the service’s subscription, which amounts to around 300 Saudi riyals ($80) a month, had been unsuccessful.
Todd.tv’s Twitter account was filled with messages from users demanding a refund of their subscription fees after the outage.
