Steven Marrocco of the Vancouver Sun writes that the UFC plans to go after individuals and websites that push pirated UFC content:
Mixed martial arts fans who watch pirated internet content could soon be pressed against the cage, says the president of an industry-leading fight promotion. In a move that could signal a sea change in the viral presence of MMA — the burgeoning sport of caged pugilism — Dana White, president of Ultimate Fighting Championship, said his company is readying a legal assault on individuals and websites that deal in unauthorized content.
“When people start going to jail, people will stop doing it,” White said.
The pay-per-view industry, of which the UFC has emerged as one of the most profitable players with an estimated $349 million US in revenue last year, is the latest front in a war between consumers who want free content and entertainment companies with a product to protect.
The weapon of choice for digital thieves: streaming video websites that beam live pay-per-view signals to their home computers, free of charge.
UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta testified for the US House Judiciary Committee earlier this month during a referendum on internet piracy of sporting events and said his anti-piracy team had uncovered 271 illegal streams of UFC 106 with over 140,000 viewers.
“The piracy of live sporting events is illegal, it kills jobs, and it threatens the expansion of US based companies,” he told lawmakers. “The UFC is potentially losing millions of dollars a year from piracy.”
Payout Perspective:
The goal is a noble one, and definitely for the betterment of the sport, but one has to wonder if the money spent pursuing these lawsuits couldn’t be better spent to further market and expand the sport. It’s going to be a very difficult to bring down all websites, let alone individual users of this content – the music and film industries have tried without much success thus far.
However, this might be the UFC’s best option: join forces with other leagues – and even the music and film industries – to split the costs of the tremendous lobbying effort necessary to strengthen piracy laws.
Epstein said the UFC had joined a coalition of major sports franchises including the NFL, MLB, and NCAA, and planned to lobby lawmakers to get tough on piracy.
“Are there always going to be people that are going to steal? Yeah,” said Epstein. “There are going to be people that rob convenience stores and banks, too. You can put up bars, you can put up cameras, but people continue to do bad things. You’re not going to stop all of it. I think this is about stopping the good majority of law-abiding citizens, who without education, might not understand that what they’re doing is not the right thing to do.”
If we take the last couple of months were some cards were a little shaddy. How many more people does the UFC think would of bought the PPV live?
Internet streaming is a problem to them I agree, but I hope that they do not expect 100% of these fans to end up buying the PPV instead.
If they killed pyracy completly, I dont think the sells would be that much affected, maybe 10-20%.
But the amount of fans that watch every PPV, leagally or illegally would greatly go down, and by the same time the UFC importance.
I think UFC is dealing with a double edge sword
I’m pretty sure most people understand the legal aspect of watching something streaming online that costs $50 to watch on your tv….. I don’t think it is an issue of morality or misunderstanding.
This is a battle the ufc can’t win. Much larger players have tried and failed. I wonder what Dana White thinks of Joe Rogan saying “You can’t stop the internet” during a live ufc event?
So, when Dana mentioned last week that he was watching the last Cung Le fight on YouTube, does he realize that he just violated the same laws he is willing to use to jail and fine others? Perhaps he feels he is better than the rest of us and has the right to break these laws. Perhaps he just doesn’t understand.
Just as the RIAA fails to understand, that those that occasionally share files are actually their best customers. Yes, the need to go after the people making money off of their content. But people viewing it are making no money. Going after them is a plan that has been repeatedly demonstrated to be a failure. It hurts your customer base, hurts your public image and does not actually stop what you are trying to stop.
I agree with yall and the ufc damn internet pirates but hay I say u can’t win this there’s to many people doing this stuff everyday and personaly id rather watch this stuff live on ppv on my tv I hate watch videos on the internet idk y but that’s just me orale paz o ya go gsp amd carwin
I think when Dana said he watched Cung, it was ok because the Cung fight was on public television anyway so nothing was stolen….. I think.
BJ’s “only” current threat today I think comes from Jose Aldo. Imagine that guy putting on 10 pounds?
If GSP couldn’t take BJ down until BJ started tiring, Maynard who is smaller, weaker and slower than GSP will not be able to.
If Aldo was smart, he’d move up to the Moneyweight division from the little leagues asap. His frame could handle it easily.
A great kickboxer with a BJJ BB and great takedown defense, yup, that’s BJ’s biggest threat.
Oops, sorry about that. I was replying to the wrong article. The BJ comments that is.
Actually I think Dana and Lorenzo have opened up a can of worms here. Personally I never knew about these P2PTV sites. I have since researched it and know how to do it now. I really have no personal problem with internet theft. I realize stealing is wrong but somehow I have managed to just justify it to myself. Just as millions of others have Music is out there, movies are out there and I simply have no problem downloading these torrents and watching or loading up my phone with new music. Will I go to JustinTV or other site and watch the next UFC PPV for free? Most likely I will give it a go. I live in a country without access to PPVs, I can watch them on Yahoo but if I can do it free, I’m going to. Thanks for educating me about it Dana and Lorenzo.
Nepal:
Watching content on YouTube or elsewhere that is not posted there by the content owners is still considered theft of the content, regardless of if it was shown on ‘public’ TV or not.
Has MMAPayout ever looked into the idea of the UFC offering it’s library via Netflix streaming?
The UFC currently offers its library via their own proprietary internet software, but you’ve got to pay on a per fight basis and it’s pretty clunky. I also believe you can buy PPVs on the Xbox platform.
This is probably one area the company is behind. For as savvy as they are in using social media like Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube to market their product, they’ve really limited the options for fans wanting to use their product.
Good idea for a separate post and topic of discussion. Cheers, Andy. 🙂
Funny. Shane Carwin gets 40,000 for the fight and the UFC makes around 10-15 million per PPV. Who is the real pirate. And Dana White (in his private jet) cries about not getting enough millions. He is taking the UFC to the boxing level….pay pay pay and viewers leave leave leave.