According to a report from a digital platform security company, almost 3 million people watched the Floyd Mayweather-Connor McGregor fight illegally.
Irdeto, a digital watchdog with global headquarters in the Netherlands but with U.S. offices noted that there were 239 illegal streams of the fight watched by approximately 2,930,598 people. 165 of those were made available through social media channels such as Facebook, YouTube, Periscope and Twitch. 67 were available through illegal streaming sites. Kodi had six available as an add-on through the illegal streaming platform.
The report claims that due to clever marketing, consumers may have been fooled into choosing an illegal service over a legitimate service. This is due to advertisements on e-commerce websites including Amazon.com, eBay and Alibaba. However, a survey reflects that 52% of the consumers around the world knowingly watch pirated video content.
On Saturday, finding an illegal stream was easy.
#MayweatherMcGregor
So many illegal streams its comical from Periscopes to YouTube to Reddit Dailymotion links https://t.co/ZKXTcUJ0LP— Rich Greenfield (@RichBTIG) August 27, 2017
Payout Perspective:
While Showtime made proactive efforts to curb piracy, it could only do so much. Notably, social media channels had the most available illegal streams which makes it hard for the IP holder to go after individuals that show the content for free. The huge demand also made it a challenge to stop pirates. But, with nearly 3 million watching the fight for free Showtime can feasibly say they have lost out on significant revenue.
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