The Death of PPVs and the Case for Piracy - A Deep Dive

[JustforBROCK]

Yje biggest cause of piracy of MMA and the UFC product specifically is Dana white. He has creat an atmosphere that makes people want to not pay.

 

[Haloxiv]

When it comes to the current ways to watch the UFC ESPN streaming f****** sucks. It's the f****** worst. I would not ever pay for it again, especially at $10 a pop f*** espn Viva La tnt in Europe and South America. Oh yeah and Nord VPN when the m************ work.

 

[Haloxiv]

Maybe if he was accepted as their own he’d have the same energy

you little weird macho men need to stop acting like the cards are full of Wmma bouts. At most there are 2 wmma fights in a main card.

It’s not women fucking up the product, it’s dudes.

So maybe stop trying to be so edgy. It’s so 2015. if your telling me you’re not paying for a ppv because a woman is fighting in it, then you just sound like some woman hating virgin.

That is correct. It's usually only a couple of women's fights and if they suck whatever plenty of f****** men's fights suck. Obviously proportionally if even a same amount between men and women's fights suck. There's more men's fights that suck ass. So quit your f****** bitching. If you don't like women I understand it. Go find a dude. There's nothing wrong with it if it's not your thing. But if it's your thing, just know you're gay.

 

[Haloxiv]

Billie Jean King beat a dude pro at tennis back in the 70's.

He was washed and he sucked and she was the best woman in the world. Don't f****** act like that some kind of standard.

 

[Ian]

I’ve been streaming since 2010. I purchased ESPN+ during the pandemic because I was happy to have live sports back and wanted to show appreciation. ESPN+ sucked and I ended up streaming cards instead of watching on the app. I’m also cheap.

 

[shorinryu86]

I think UFC should sign with Netflix at this point. No one is gonna pay for PPVs anymore.

 

[TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle]

If the PPVs were like $40-50 and stacked as standard with only a handful of free cards here and there the numbers would still be fine. But they're trying to sell garbage cards at an $80 price point on top of 30+ even more garbage free cards per year. Who the fuck could be THAT committed to endure that and not burn out on it?

 

[Sms_productions713]

Remember Dana always telling us back in the day
“ Just get 5 of your friends and y’all each pitch in 10$”

Here I am 17 years later and you can’t even get me to pay attention to watching it illegally for free

 

[Sms_productions713]

you little weird macho men need to stop acting like the cards are full of Wmma bouts. At most there are 2 wmma fights in a main card.

It’s not women fucking up the product, it’s dudes.

So maybe stop trying to be so edgy. It’s so 2015. if your telling me you’re not paying for a ppv because a woman is fighting in it, then you just sound like some woman hating virgin.

It was 2 too many tonight. And one was 25 mins, and the other had 38 seconds of fun out of 15.

And it’s not because they’re women. I feel about them the same I feel about a Belal fight. It’s just not worth the money, or even time at this point.

 

[Young Calf Kick]

Well congratulations: you finally got a female to notice you.

Omg!

wanna make out?

 

[Hog-train]

You need a stupid ESPN + subscription as well as paying for PPV. Ain't nobody got time for that bullshit.

They can just stream for free.

That is correct. It's usually only a couple of women's fights and if they suck whatever plenty of f****** men's fights suck. Obviously proportionally if even a same amount between men and women's fights suck. There's more men's fights that suck ass. So quit your f****** bitching. If you don't like women I understand it. Go find a dude. There's nothing wrong with it if it's not your thing. But if it's your thing, just know you're gay.

I personally love the female fights because they're so easy to bet on. Just bet the over or decision. No one finishes because everyone has pillow fists.

 

[shunyata]

If they somehow scaled prime Bas Rutten to clash with electrifying, rising Conor McGregor in the same card with a Brock Lesnar vs Ronda Rousey* and GSP vs Anderson Silva it still wouldn't be worth paying 85$ or whatever the fuck they're pricing it now.

*Ronda by armbar in 14 seconds

People are bitching about paying $80 for a AAA video game with 100+ hours of content right now when they paid $50 for Mortal Kombat II on SNES in the 90s. ESPN wants you to pay $80 for 2 hours worth of content? The broadcast may run 3+ hours but it's more than an hour of ads and promos.

If Dana wants the UFC to move out of the bush leagues, he needs to sign a major broadcast deal that drops the ppv model. It's a dying revenue stream and it's holding back worldwide exposure he desperately wants to grow the sport.

 

[pick999]

i buy ppv to support dana giving money to the nelk boys

 

[Mick Dojang]

>$80 PPV for boring card + fun Poatan fight (ufc)
rampant piracy
>$20 PPV for fun card (rizin)
no need for piracy

Ultimately for the UFC charging $80 per event to make sense, it has to make them more money from those who actually pay (allowing for what, 60-80% pirated viewing) than it would if like 60-80% of people paid less money.

So I'm not sure what their argument is. If you charge more, less people actually buy it but you still make $X. Ultimately they don't feel your product is worth that money so they're just going to find ways to watch it without paying (even just in a bar). Just making piracy harder doesn't mean $80 is suddenly a good price point for 10 bouts of slop plus a title fight