Nicholas Deleon of Crunch Gear blogs about the availability of UFC 117 streams on UStream even after the subpoenas issued and lawsuits filed in the last few months.
What seems to be happening with these streams—and that goes for all sports, not just UFC—is that you’ll find channels set up on Usteam, Justin.tv, etc. advertising the availability of a stream, but then you go off-site to actually watch the stream.
P2P streams, which are somewhat harder to fight, particularly if they’re hosted in foreign countries, were still going strong, as well.
High-quality copies of the event have already spread to various BitTorrent sites.
Bottom line is, streams are still out there. For how long that remains the case—there’s another UFC pay-per-view at the end of this month—is completely unknown.
Payout Perspective:
The UFC is likely going to argue that it’s strategy will take time to pay off, but I tend to agree with Nicholas that there will always be an appetite for free streaming content (and a community to serve that appetite).
Piracy presents a unique and difficult challenge for all companies, because there’s no clear way to evaluate how successful counter measures are at stopping the illegal activity.
I tend to think the UFC’s goal should be to eliminate easy access to its illegal copied and distributed content – the Ustream and Justin.TVs of the internet community. Anything beyond that is difficult to eradicate, because that appetite will always exist and the cost-benefit ratio is terribly unfavorable. It won’t do the UFC any good to pursue the last remaining and most dedicated pirates/viewers to the ends of the Earth.
I went down the path of paying $24.99 to get the even from the UFC website. Streaming it all the way back to sunny Scotland at 3am. Just as the Silva fight really started to go crazy the feed broke. Nothing to do with the connection, it is a 50mb connection and everywhere else we went to at that time worked fine. When I complained to the UFC they basically said tough, and that I should watch it again as I still have 24 hours to do so. Which I didnt because they took over a day to get back to me!!! I wont be buying the next one, an illegal feed for me i think! Plus the “super Streaming HD” that I supposedly paid for? on a 15″ computer monitor blown up to full screen it was terrible. We had to watch in the small window. Id like to know if anyone else had a problem with their legitamate feed the other night??
I’ve used the UFC’s official stream once before, for UFC 100. Blown up on a 42″ inch TV, with a 20mb line here in the UK and the quality was outstanding.
You say that everywhere else you went to at the time was fine, but was everywhere else you went to chucking the same amount of data as the UFC’s HD stream down your line? It’s a very large amount of data, and having a 50mb line doesn’t guarantee anything. It sounds very much like your ISP has poor routing to the US…which really, isn’t the UFC’s problem.
Also, why did you wait for the UFC to get back to you before trying to watch it again? Why not do it straight away?
Robert,
I was in Caracas and tried to stream a card some years back. It was miserable and flat out didn’t work from the first fight on. I contacted the UFC immediately and I got my money back, but I haven’t tried it since. I don’t blame the UFC too much; for the A. Sliva – Cote fight my Time Warner feed kept going out and I got my money back from Time Warner for that one too.
These things happen from time to time, but I understand your frustration. When my cable box started acting up just as they were announcing A. Silva I went ballistic. My wife had to restrain me before I put a beer bottle through the TV.
Not that unexpected. If anything, things will likely continue to get more accessible.
Completely agree. Its what i have said for a while. The UFC using going to try and end piracy. They cant and they are smart enough to know that. They are trying to beat it back into the underground where it used to be and belongs.
If getting free PPVs was easy and risk free EVERYONE would do it. Over the years the accessibility has converted paying customers into pirates. The UFC is fighting to stop that spread and get those customers back. True pirates will always be pirates. They like the challenge. Most customers wont go through the headaches and will pay for the broadcast.
I also believe the UFC is testing what they can and cant do to these sites and see how much of an effect they have on piracy. Dana has always stated he believe TV will eventaully go through the internet. If piracy is running a much that may not be a good thing. I think the UFC wants to see if it can some what control piracy before it jumps into internet tv with both feet.
RE Robert/Brad. Why pay for the offical streams at around £20 on current exchange rates, when you can get espn added to sky for around £8/month, or got the large tv pack with virgin, for around £35 total. seems pretty dumb to me.
I didn’t even know you could get the official stream in the UK. I was looking into it before and it was unavailable – presumably because ESPN had the rights.
I did get the WEC PPV stream though, and it was pretty good. The only thing that annoys me is the way the quality “auto adjusts”. My crappy computer would occasionally slow down slightly, causing a a couple of frames to skip out. The software then dropped the quality to guarantee smoothness. It would take a good 5 minutes for the stream to gradually hike up to the highest settings again. Scrolling your mouse and bringing up the on screen menu controls also would put the quality down.
On NFL streams you have the additional option of selecting a fixed bitrate, which is something the UFC should add.
Overall the quality was at least as good as a bittorrent release, which is where I’d get WEC events from (they have no TV deal in the UK).
Brainsmasher – getting PPVs for free IS easy and pretty much risk free. You can get high quality releases 5 hours after an event. However, I think for most people getting it live and on a HD 42″ TV would be worth chipping in a few bucks with some friends.
Considering the ease and quality of these illegal downloads, it surprises me that the UFC can’t release their own 5GB downloads after the event (for people who can’t stream, or want to ensure top notch quality).
I have watched UFC ppv’s via a site that allows a 24 hour cable subscription to ESPN UK. The picture is good, not great, but on a 64 inch HD tv it’s just fine. The subscription only cost 3.99 for 24 hours. I wont advertise the site, but, we have don it for the last 3 PPV’s and it’s cost less then 1/4 the price of 1 PPV.