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UFC won the battle -- streams win the war

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2.3K views 18 replies 17 participants last post by  Blitzz  
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#1 · (Edited)
Despite Legal Threats, UFC Streams Still Easy To Find

Last night was the first big test for the stream police after Zuffa, parent company of UFC, had subpoenaed Ustream and Justin.tv last week for the IP addresses of its users caught illegally streaming pay-per-view events. A quick look around the Internet during last night’s UFC 117 event showed one thing: streams haven’t gone away. A search for “ufc” on Ustream turned up many channels advertising an illegal stream of the event.

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.

Zuffa can subpoena whomever it wants, and it has every right to do so, but there will always be communities devoted to watching its events for free, either via a live stream (the quality of which will only improve in the years ahead) or via a download after the event finishes.

If I can make one suggestion: lower the price of the official Zuffa PPV stream. Fouty-five dollars for an Internet stream is a little on the high side, don’t you think? For that you’re almost better off paying the $60 for an HD PPV feed from your cable or satellite provider, or going out to a bar or restaurant and making a “night out” of it.

That, of course, only speaks to the PPV situation here in the U.S. I have no idea how UFC works in, say, Australia. (Though I do know the events are shown for free on ESPN in the UK, so that’s neat.)

damn...forgot the source, my bad: http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/08/08/despite-legal-threats-ufc-streams-still-easy-to-find/
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suck it UFC!:thumb02: ....though i did buy the card:thumbsup: lol....then i downloaded it to watch it 100x
 
#2 ·
The analogy you use isnt fitting. In context, the short term is labelled the battle, the long term labelled the war.

Streams are winning the battle (short term), but ultimately the UFC will win the war (long term).

Lesson over for today folks :)

ps. cant you guys Tivo the PPV or something?
 
#3 ·
you're never going to win a fight against the internet. after all, the internet was first made to share information across the world.

at the same time this shouldn't be a people vs the ufc thing. We are all fans of the UFC and want them to keep establishing themselves as a company that puts out entertaining content.

that being said hell yeah UFC PPV are too expensive to buy every single one of them. I mean boxing has their big sellers that sell millions of PPV's... but there is only like 1 or 2 big boxing fights a year that are really worth PPV money. the rest you can watch on showtime or HBO. not the case with the UFC. they really need to work on a broadcast deal
 
#6 ·
chosenFEW said:
you're never going to win a fight against the internet. after all, the internet was first made to share information across the world.

at the same time this shouldn't be a people vs the ufc thing. We are all fans of the UFC and want them to keep establishing themselves as a company that puts out entertaining content.

that being said hell yeah UFC PPV are too expensive to buy every single one of them. I mean boxing has their big sellers that sell millions of PPV's... but there is only like 1 or 2 big boxing fights a year that are really worth PPV money. the rest you can watch on showtime or HBO. not the case with the UFC. they really need to work on a broadcast deal
Click to expand...
the most sense to come out of the internet itself :thumb02:
 
#4 ·
I have some friends who used Sopcast's public mma channel and it worked flawlessly. Some people still use Tvu player, WMP, etc to stream, and aren't even going to streaming sites anymore (which allegedly mostly still worked last saturday). I have a few techie friends who use private, password protected channels with only a few dozen people watching, it's wild.

I'm not sure what battle the UFC won that any other media or entertainment company hasn't, in fact they've done MUCH less. But good for them! They don't have to beg for MY ppv money, but I don't think there's much wrong with streaming when you're a kid with no job. In fact, if it's been out there for them to take since they were little kids, I don't see what will stop them.
 
#14 ·
I would like to know how much money Zuffa is actually losing due to illegal streams vs. how much money they intend on spending on legal fees to try and shut these sites down (only to have a doze more spring up in their place).
Most people who watch the illegal fights never intended on buying the PPV in the first place.
If you have 12+ major PPV events a year you can’t expect your “fans” to buy every single one.
 
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