Zuffa, LLC, the parent company of the UFC has sued Justin.tv for repeated illegal uploading of UFC PPV events on its web site. The UFC sent out a press release Friday afternoon notifying all of its lawsuit filed in the United States District Court of Nevada.
From the UFC press release:
The Justin.tv website enables anyone with an internet connection to broadcast live streaming video to an unlimited audience. Although purportedly developed to bring user-generated content to a large live audience, the Justin.tv website is routinely exploited by users to broadcast illegally uploaded content, including UFC® events.
For example, on October 23, 2010, over 50,000 people watched live streaming feeds of the UFC 121 Pay-Per-View event. Indeed, third-party contractors hired and paid for by Zuffa, removed more than 200 infringing live streams of UFC 121 from the Justin.tv website. This piracy represents a significant loss of revenue to Zuffa and its mobile, online, cable and satellite distribution partners each year.
“Zuffa has attempted to work on numerous occasions with Justin.tv over nearly a two-year period to encourage it to prevent or limit its infringing activities,” Zuffa’s Las Vegas attorney, Donald J. Campbell said. “Regrettably, Justin.tv has not only turned a blind eye to the massive online piracy occurring on its website, we believe it has actually induced its users to commit copyright infringement thus leaving Zuffa no alternative but to take this fight to the courts.”
Payout Perspective:
The lawsuit is another sign of the UFC’s aggressive approach to combat piracy. Obviously, if 50,000 people watch a $55 PPV without paying, the UFC is losing a lot of money. On the heels of the disappointing PPV buy rate for UFC 125, it is no surprise that the UFC would become more vigilant in its fight against illegal streaming.
For a background on Zuffa’s fight against piracy, I recommend Justin Klein’s November article here. He has further info on the UFC-Justin.tv matter on his blog.
Most Zuffa events are FREE.
ZUFFA IN 2010
UFC – 24 total events.
FREE:
2 EVENTS: UFC on Versus.
2 EVENTS: TUF FINALEs – GSP vs Kos, Liddell vs Ortiz
2 EVENTS: UFC 120 and UFC 122
3 EVENTS: Fight Nights
10 PRELIMS: FREE
UFC 109 (February 2010): 1.7 million viewers
UFC 114 (May 2010): 1.6 million viewers
UFC 108 (January 2010): 1.5 million viewers
UFC 121 (October 2010): 1.5 million viewers
UFC 123 (November 2010): 1.5 million viewers
UFC 119 (September 2010): 1.3 million viewers
UFC 116 (July 2010): 1.3 million viewers
UFC 115 (June 2010): 1.3 million viewers
UFC 111 (March 2010): 1.2 million viewers
UFC 118 (August 2010): 1.1 million viewers
UFC PPV: 15 PPVs
WEC – 8 events (WEC 46 – WEC 53)
* WEC 48 PPV
FREE: WEC 48 prelims on Spike.
TOTAL: 15 UFC PPV + 1 WEC PPV = 16 PPV out of 32 events. Plus, 11 hours FREE prelims on Spike.
Yeah freaking cheap asses, get a job and pay to watch the UFC…OMG…how freaking sad…and these are same ones to complain about goverment help for those in need..when you all are stealing from society……WTF..!!