The US Attorney of New York and the US Immigration Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) received a big thanks from the UFC in a press release on Wednesday as the agencies shut down 10 websites that allegedly live streamed sporting events and PPVs.
Political news web site POLITICO reported the enforcement actions but did not mention the UFC in the article. Instead, it focused on the fact that the seizure of websites was made prior to the Super Bowl as context for the actions. The sites themselves do not provide the content, but provide links to other websites where people can access the events illegally. The POLITICO article states that the sites not only act as a conduit to provide people to sites that illegally stream content, but dent revenues of sports leagues and broadcasters which ultimately will hurt viewers.
Via UFC press release:
In connection with the recent forfeiture raids initiated by the United States Department of Justice, the UFC® wishes to individually thank Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and John T. Morton, the Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) for aggressively confronting and pursuing these criminal enterprises.
Speaking on behalf of the UFC®, Dana White, Zuffa’s President, issued the following statement: “The very forceful actions taken by Mr. Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and Mr. Morton, the Director of ICE, against these parasitic websites is very welcome news. The criminal theft of Pay-Per-View events has resulted in the loss of millions of dollars of revenue to not only the UFC® and its fighters, but has also deprived federal, state and local government of their rightful entitlement to significant tax revenue.
“On behalf of the UFC®and its fighters, I extend my sincerest thanks to Mr. Bharara, Mr. Morton, and the many Assistant United States Attorneys and Agents of Homeland Security Investigations who worked so tirelessly during the course of this intensive investigation.”
Despite the seizures, one of the websites that was shut down on Wednesday has already reappeared online.
Payout Perspective:
For the UFC, the press release reaffirms its aggressive stance on piracy. The UFC release is part government relations as it complements, by name, the NY US Attorney and ICE Director for its work. Notwithstanding recent news about MMA in New York, thanking the US Attorney in New York doesn’t hurt.
Although mainstream news outlets like POLITICO will focus on the affect the seizures have on professional leagues, it goes without saying that the work helps the UFC as well. This weekend’s UFC 126 should be one of the more compelling PPVs in a while with Silva-Belfort, Griffin-Franklin and Bader-Jones. The PPV buy rate should be good and with the assist from the feds, some users may need to buy the PPV rather than get it for free.
Of course, while some sites go down, others pop up: a game of whac-a-mole as the Fight Lawyer pointed out last year.
An exercise in futility. Just ask Metallica 😉
Actually quite different than Metallica’s pursuit. Music groups want to stop people from DOWNLOADING their music, while the UFC seeks to stop the LIVE BROADCAST of their PPV events. They have never, to my knowledge, gone after P2P file sharing which was what the RIAA/MPAA attempted to circumvent, quite unsuccessfully (which is what you are referring to). The UFC has instead chosen to pursue the owners of websites that allow users to broadcast their product for viewing free of charge, which very directly effects their bottom line. Given the LIVE event nature of the UFC’s product, a P2P video file of one of their events does a lot less damage to their bottom line, in their eyes, as it is far less attractive than watching the fights live (as opposed o Metallica’s music, which is timeless and does not lose value after one listen), and therefore less likely to be sought out (does not affect the buyrate significantly). Therefore, the UFC is somewhat immune to P2P piracy due to the live nature of their product, but very susceptible to streaming video piracy which is essentially the same product and experience, albeit with a level of decrease in quality.
An interesting question is always “how many of these pirates would actually PURCHASE the event if it weren’t available via non-affiliated illegal online stream? It would definitely be a number less than the total viewers of the pirated stream. A lot of them would probably just download it via torrent the next day, merely keeping themselves from the results for 12 hours or so to save $50-$60 (people seem to always forget about the PPV franchise fee and tax). This is where one has to seriously question the overall effectiveness of Zuffa’s anti-piracy efforts. Sorry Lorenzo, you’re not actually gaining back a proportionate amount of PPV buys.
The other question is how much capital Zuffa is throwing at this pursuit. We don;t and will not know, but I would imagine that the whole campaign is more about sending a message to potential pirates that there may be consequences than a belief they can actually ELIMINATE streaming PPV piracy.
On an unrelated note, has anyone ever ordered a UFC on a Roku player? I’m trying it out Sat. but the reviews are making me nervous…
MV – I think you are correct that not everyone that visits an illegal online stream would actually purchase the event. However, I do think there would be a percentage out there that would break down and pay the $ if they had to…for example, I can see folks paying for this week’s fights but maybe not UFC 125.
Way more than one was back on line as of yesterday.
To say that Zuffa doesn’t care about torrents because they aren’t in real time is a stretch when they go after any mash up or any thing else they find on youtube that might possible contain any of their content. Even if the use of it may be legal under some of the DMCA excemptions. And personally I am sick and tired of people praising the UFC on their awesome use of the internet for promoting while completely missing the glaring hole of them going after people who make promo clips for their fighters which are just commercials for their product.
If you read the forums there is an obviously large crowd that doesn’t care about price no matter what it is and will trash any one that does complain about the price. With ticket prices going up, the fee from bars going up driving some out of the business of doing UFC, and the crack down on the internet. It will be interesting to see how much good will the UFC has after this year. I personally lost interest in them over a year ago and haven’t looked back.
id never pay the money they charge for a PPV event. its maybe worth 15-20 bucks and thats it so if they end up making it hard to find sites that stream it i guess ill just have to wait the 1-2 hour delays after each fight for it to be uploaded onto the net /shrug