HBO, Showtime Combo Knock Out Pacquiao/Mayweather Free Streaming Sites

As we lead in to tomorrow night’s fight of the century and the most expensive pay-per-view ever, HBO and Showtime – the premium cable companies that joined forces to produce the event – are kissing their biceps following their jab-hook combination that knocked online streaming sites to the mat.

Yesterday a federal judge granted HBO and Showtime a temporary restraining order against boxinghd.net and sportship.org, two sites which advertised unauthorized free online streaming of the bout, but have since removed all related content.

Deciding Judge George Wu wrote:

“Plaintiffs have established that they will suffer irreparable harm in the absence of immediate relief. Among other things, Defendants’ threatened infringement would strip Plaintiffs of the critical right of first transmission and publication of an extremely valuable live sporting event, would interfere with Plaintiffs’ relationships with third parties, is likely to damage Plaintiffs’ goodwill among consumers, and will deprive Plaintiffs of revenue that will be difficult or impossible to calculate, but is likely far in excess of any amount that Defendants could repay to Plaintiffs in damages even if the amount could be calculated.”

At time of publication, both sites are unavailable. Deadline.com reported on Wednesday that “where big splashy photo of the two boxers and a ‘click here’ to watch the weekend fight, now there is pretty much nothing.”

The mega fight will cost viewers $100 to watch in HD ($90 in standard definition). According to Forbes, the fight is expected to earn $300 million in PPV revenue or more.

Online streaming sites aren’t the only ones being watched. The Guardian ran a piece Tuesday which brought light to the existence of pay-per-view cops.

On the night of the big fight, the PPV cops – who are not real police, though one company says many former law-enforcement officers are in their ranks – will attempt to find bars showing the fight without having paid licensing fees. If they help promoters nail establishments that have not paid, the companies say they can make hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

The cost for a bar or restaurant to purchase a license depends on the occupancy of the building. But for many establishments, it’s costing about $5000. The bigger the occupancy, the higher the cost. And many bars have decided it’s simply too expensive to carry the fight.

Meanwhile, other bars certainly will try to fly under the radar. These PPV cops are searching for those that duck the expensive license and purchase the residential PPV charge of $100 to show the fight illegally.

One firm’s ad offers $250 for every illegal location found for these enforcers. Another firm advertised on Craigslist. And it’s not all just show.

From The Guardian:

A bar in Lake Elsinore, California, shut down after paying a $23,000 fine for illegally showing a Mayweather fight. J&J Sports Promotions, which licenses fights and has partnered with G&G, has also filed more than 1,600 lawsuits against businesses illegally showing PPV events since 2010. In 2009 it won a $112,800 default judgment against a bar in Arkansas. It settled for $50,000 with a bar that showed the Mayweather-Victor Ortiz fight in 2011. “I’m not in business to sue people,” the J&J president Joseph Gagliardi told the Los Angeles Times. “But I’ve got to do it for one reason: to protect the clientele who are doing it right.”

Fight night piracy is down for the count. Bloodied and brawled, this one looks like a loss.

(Image courtesy of Justin Matthew)





Seth loves baseball and anything with Sriracha in it. Follow him on Twitter @sethkeichline.

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Larry A
8 years ago

Sounds like a a challenge. Ill pay the same to watch this fight as I pay for every UFC/WWF event.

Eric F
8 years ago

I’m honestly curious, do they really plan on millions of people buying the PPV? Don’t get me wrong I enjoy boxing, but the sport has just seemed dead in the water for so long now I can’t imagine that many people wanting to pay 100 for 1 fight. Of course it’s different if you can get a bunch of buddies together to watch and split that by 10 or whatever, But I still have a hard time seeing them actually reach their 300 mill projection with how boxing’s popularity has been dwindling.

JJ
8 years ago
Reply to  Eric F

As a boxing fan, thats exactly how everyone does it. You just throw a party have the guests chip in a little to cover the cost and everyone brings a little booze/food and you have a big ole party.

Great time

Deelron
8 years ago
Reply to  Eric F

Mayweather/Alverez did 2.2 million buys, it’s not that much of a different sport now then it was then, and it’s a much bigger fight, they just filled most of an arena (11,500, with most of the empty seats behind the stage) for a $10 per ticket (to charity) weigh-in. I can see 3 million.

The real kick to the face is the lack of legal viewing options outside of PPV, particularly when so many recent fights have been available in either theaters or streamed online for the PPV price.

Steve
8 years ago

$90-100 to watch on TV is crazy. They’re charging £20 (~$30) here in the UK.

Anonymous
8 years ago

“Fight night piracy is down for the count.”

Ahahaha

I truly hope everyone believes this. I’ll admit the free streams were slightly harder to find tonight. Took me a whole 90 seconds of googling instead of my usual 10.

Cody
8 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

My exact experience. I found a stream in less than a minute and it did not cut out once throughout the 12 rounds.