Pay-per-view dealt body blow
Nearly 3 million saw marquee bout free on streaming services
Conor McGregor isn’t the only one who took it on the chin Saturday.
Pay-per-view was dealt a heavy blow — though probably not a knockout — from live-streaming apps that are likely to only get more nimble before the next round.
Nearly 3 million people watched Saturday’s Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Conor McGregor fight for free on live-streaming services, according to security firm Irdeto. Showtime, which broadcast the fight on its cable TV channel as well as its streaming pay-per-view site and via an app for $99, has not released audience numbers for the event.
The free broadcasts were sim- ple: someone holding a smartphone in front of their TV screen and sharing the paid event live on Facebook, Twitter’s Periscope, Instagram, YouTube and others.
As these apps advertise the ease of going live by tapping a button, pay-per-view (PPV) promoters such as Showtime face increased threats to a business model that revolves around con- vincing customers they need to pony up for a must-see event.
Pay-per-view has traditionally been the domain of cable and satellite operators, used primarily for big-ticket sporting events such as boxing and wrestling. In recent years, with the advent of streaming and on-demand video rentals from Apple’s iTunes and the cable providers themselves, PPV has been used more selectively, for big events.
The event was big, attracting fans — and free-loaders.
Mark Mulready, vice president of cybersecurity services for Irdeto, says the Mayweather-McGregor match was “the largest we’ve seen to date” in terms of copyrighted big-ticket sports content appearing for free online.
The lion’s share of the 2.93 million viewers were on Facebook, which dominates live streaming,
he adds, followed by YouTube and Twitter’s Periscope app.
“In terms of ease of use, it’s one or two clicks, and instant viewing,” he says.
On Saturday, Periscope, Twitter’s live-streaming app, was a trending topic on social media, with many users touting their free streams.
Twitter’s copyright policy states that the company will suspend or terminate accounts that violate it.
A company spokesperson declined to comment on whether Twitter in fact suspended or terminated any accounts that shared the fight illegally.
The onus is on CBS’ Showtime unit or any other pay-per-view promoter to complain to platforms such as Facebook and YouTube if too many users are uploading copyrighted streams. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, websites and apps that show content illegally need to take it down once the copyright holder complains.
Facebook presents the biggest challenge to pay-per-view promoters, Mulready says, due to its audience of more than 2 billion people.
With some 239 illegal streams Irdeto caught on Saturday, “so many streams would need to be removed,” Mulready says. “It would be difficult for Facebook to take them down as quickly as the industry would like.”
Facebook and its Instagram unit did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Showtime. So is it a losing battle? Mulready doesn’t think so. “Pay-per-view will be around for years to come,” he says.
He believes promoters need to do a better job protecting their content, like via watermarking, which could identify the source of the pirated stream.