In an interview with the Vancover Sun, the UFC has vowed to take legal action against both the companies broadcasting the pay-per-view events illegally across the web as well as the individuals who knowingly are watching these broadcast to avoid paying fees associated with the event.
UFC Preparing Piracy Crackdown
Zuffa head and casino magnet Lorenzo Fertitta recently testified in front of the US House Judiciary Committee during a referendum on internet piracy of sporting events. Fertitta shared on the record that his company monitored internet activity and uncovered 271 illegal streams of UFC 106, which aired on November 21, 2009. The streams had generated over 140,000 viewers.
Sites such as these have proliferated the web. One of the more visible players in this space is Justin.TV. Most of website are hosted in foreign companies, making it difficult for broadcast to bring legal suit in countries where copyright infringement is given a pass. These companies utilize blog boards to post comments and links to their websites that will air the fight illegally.
(At BenchwarmersUnited.com, it is our policy to delete comments promoting these illegal practices and we can share that we deleted more that 150 comment post over the last 2 weeks leading up to UFC 108 promoting internet piracy)
UFC President Dana White told the Vancouver Sun, “It’s going to be a battle, man, but I’m ready to [expletive] fight. We’re gonna go after them, we’re gonna go after them hard, and we’re gonna hurt them. When people start going to jail, people will stop doing it.”
The timing of UFC announcement that they plan to crackdown on internet piracy is interesting to say the least. The organization is struggling to generate the quality fight cards it once did, its top stars are aging and the UFC has been hit heavily by the injury bug.
While UFC boasts PPV sales in the six-digit neighborhood, most industry observers believe the numbers fall quite short of these figures given that UFC refuses to allow a third-party audit their books. Following a head-to-head competition in September between the Mayweather/Marquez boxing match and UFC 103, Golden Boy Promotions President Rich Schaefer challenged UFC to an audit of PPV sales after Dana White said the UFC would outsell them that night. The UFC declined the invitation as rumors circled that sales were less than 20% of the boxing card. That night’s headliner was a “contender” fight between soon-to-be-retired Rich Franklin and previously-UFC-banished Vitor Belfort,
More concerning are the inroads being made by other organizations in obtaining television deals that offer fans MMA fights for free or at less substantial costs. Strikeforce has struck a deal with Showtime and CBS to air its events. Bellator scored a major deal with FoxSports Network, Univision and NBC. And Dream and Sengoku have deals with HDNet to air their events. Free mixed martial arts is proliferating the television cable box.
The once mighty UFC is facing strong competition like never before and it has found itself in the middle of a struggling economy where consumers will choose free MMA rather than paying $50 per event, especially when the pay-per-view cards don’t carry a title fight. The announcement of fighting piracy comes about shortly after what most industry observers deemed a lackluster event at UFC 108.
Is the timing a coincidence. We shall know more as 2010 plays out and UFC is stuck with a second-tier TV broadcasting arrangement with Spike TV.
Tags: bellator, dana white, Dream, mixed martial arts, Sengoku, strikeforce, ufc, Zuffa LLC
