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Mayweather-McGregor Streaming Glitches Prompt Lawsuit Against Showtime (hollywoodreporter.com)
Customers who paid $99.99 to watch the Conor McGregor-Floyd Mayweather fight are suing Showtime due to the quality of their stream and buffering issues. From a report via Hollywood Reporter: Portland, Ore., boxing fan Zack Bartel paid to stream the fight in high-definition through the Showtime app but says all he saw was "grainy video, error screens, buffer events, and stalls." Bartel is suing Showtime for unlawful trade practices and unjust enrichment, alleging the network rushed its pay-per-view streaming service to the market without securing the bandwidth necessary to support the scores of cable-cutting fans. The complaint, which is largely composed of screenshots and tweets, is seeking for each member of the class actual damages or $200 in statutory damages, whichever is greater. The proposed class includes Oregon consumers who viewed Showtime's app advertisement on iTunes and paid $99.99 to stream the fight, but were unable to view the fight live on the app "in HD at 1080p resolution and at 60 frames per second, and who experienced ongoing grainy video, error screens, buffer events, and stalls instead." Showtime senior vp sports communications director, Chris DeBlasio, says: "We have received a very limited number of complaints and will issue a full refund for any customer who purchased the event directly from Showtime and were unable to receive the telecast." DeBlasio recommends users contact their cable or satellite provider if they experienced any issues.
I don't know anyone with a connection fast enough to stream, so they're obviously not taking about us.
I'm going to spend a hundred to buy a nice dinner and movie, enjoy a game of mini golf, give a few bucks to charity, and then go on Amazon to buy a miniature violin. Said violin should also prove useful when dealing with people who pay a thousand dollars for an "Ivery(TM)" plastic backscratcher.
One disgruntled 'sportsfan' complained
Requiem for the American Dream
The company said they'll give refunds so can't see how this complaint has any legs.
I'm not sure why anyone pays for this shit anyway. Go to your local bar and spend the $hundred on beer and snacks support your local business and watch the show for free. The atmosphere is usually much better than at home or the actual event.
During the 1980's the big thing was to go to a stadium and watch a fight on a large projection screen. Price was $50. ($160 in 2017 money.)
One fight lasted less than a minute. No refunds.
Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
He can't prove the problems were caused by Showtime. Most likely they were caused by his internet provider.
Yep, because the fight was totally delayed due to the streaming issues because of a bunch of end user ISPs.
We have received a very limited number of complaints
Well then maybe all the people attending the actual event should sue then for the unjust delay to the fight caused by streaming issues, if they were actually so limited.
Ok, so I'm like 100 percent certain that there's going to be some sort of EULA or shrink-wrap/click-wrap/whatever license that releases them from liability for streams that fail to reach the maximum possible quality due to an insufficient internet connection.
He can't prove the problems were caused by Showtime. Most likely they were caused by his internet provider.
Unlikely to the extreme: these problems were reported so widely, Showtime even moved the main event to mitigate the problems caused by the unresponsive servers.
If he actually goes ahead with the suit, he's likely to be counter sued; and he'll probably lose.
Countersued? For what? At this point I think you must be trolling.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
as they said the issues where caused by them not having enough bandwidth for the demand and you payed frigging 100$ for it i would be pissed to.
Pirates are getting an inferior product. Instead of watching the fight flawlessly, they could have watched it with stutter and get paid for it now!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
How did they manage to mess this up so hard?
Some major chess events also experience unfathomable streaming problems. I think the issue is that the people hired to manage the streaming are the same people they previously hired to set up their low traffic web pages.
"His name was James Damore."
Showtime isn't going to sue him. Even if they won and were awarded everything the guy has it wouldn't pay for their lawyer time.
Hooli Clowns can't get streaming right.
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I'm not sure why anyone pays for this shit anyway. Go to your local bar and spend the $hundred on beer and snacks support your local business and watch the show for free.
Oddly enough for this particular event this was not an option in my relatively urban area. My usual watering holes were not showing it (though they will often do other PPVs). Reasons varied between the cost to them and security concerns. The only two options in my area were $40 to watch it at a movie theater, which will be well over $100 if you and the wife go and each have one of their overpriced beers and some snacks. The other option was a Dave and Busters and they were charging a cover as well ($20) with no guarantee of a seat or even any wait service unless you bought the $50 VIP package.
A buddy went to Dave and Busters and he said it sucked. Literally wall to wall people, it took 20 minutes just to get to the bar to buy a single beer, and the place was crawling with cops.
Luckily a neighbor was "streaming" his PPV against his garage door using a projector. As long as you came with your own beer it was completely free, though most chipped in $10 or left the remains of a beer case. From a social perspective that's the way to go.
each member of the class actual damages or $200 in statutory damages, whichever is greater
Minus the class action chasing lawyer fees, good luck with that.
Showtime should turn around and sue his ISP for sucking so badly. Considering the press on this story, Showtime could argue that his ISP damaged their image.
What ever happened to multicast streaming? I thought there was a big push for that a decade or so ago so one stream could service thousands of endpoints simultaneously in order to alleviate disasters like this.
Terrusts? Getting hacked? Or drunk paddies?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I expect I'm going to be watching it in a theater, on a 30 foot screen, or else as a live performance.
I cannot even begin to comprehend how a person would think that is a worthwhile investment to watch at home.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
The company said they'll give refunds so can't see how this complaint has any legs. I'm not sure why anyone pays for this shit anyway. Go to your local bar and spend the $hundred on beer and snacks support your local business and watch the show for free. The atmosphere is usually much better than at home or the actual event.
Exactly this! As a card carrying introvert, the bar environment is the perfect place to watch boxing bar none..
And I don't have the wife telling me that boxing is brutal (duh) or thinking I'm watching gay porn if I have an MMA fight on.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Most local bars were charging admission for this (or any big fight). Typically $20-50 per person.
Also, a lot of people who are purchasing the fight for home viewing are hosting parties. I'd much rather view the fight with 15-20 friends than with 100-200 strangers.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
He can't prove the problems were caused by Showtime. Most likely they were caused by his internet provider.
Unlikely to the extreme: these problems were reported so widely, Showtime even moved the main event to mitigate the problems caused by the unresponsive servers.
If he actually goes ahead with the suit, he's likely to be counter sued; and he'll probably lose.
Countersued? For what? At this point I think you must be trolling.
It was one of those educational and cultural moments that lift all humans to a more enlightened plane.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Well, to be honest...
Beware of the Leopard.
MMA events are irregular? the upcoming PPV schedule for UFC is 2 Sep, 7 Oct, 4 Nov, 2 Dec, and 30 Dec.
Yes that is irregular in this context. Regular in this context means weekly or more often. There are ~16 NFL games every week during the season. NASCAR has a race every weekend. MLB has games basically daily from May through October. MMA by comparison might happen at routine intervals but it is not at a standard or frequent time. It's just a different financial model. Not better or worse, just different.
I don't get why you would file a lawsuit for something like this. Just call Showtime and they'll give you your 99$ back. Done. End of story. If this ever reaches a judge, it should be laughed out of court and kick the lawyer in the pants for accepting such a stupid case.
Paying $99.99 to watch two large sweaty men punch each other for a while?
I'm finding it really hard to sympathise with these people.
Most likely they were caused by his internet provider.
So, a net neutrality problem then?
Showtime should just refund anyone who had problems their $100. And then go after the ISPs for throttling or otherwise harming their streaming feed and costing them the refund.
Have gnu, will travel.
Yeah and instead we got a pixelated view of what may have been the old man and leprechaun, but could also have been an episode of golden girls.Whether or not it was worth it to you, they sold it for $100 and it didn't meet expectations.
I cannot even begin to comprehend how a person would think that is a worthwhile investment to watch at home.
For a single person, yes that's insane. However, most people get a bunch of their friends together and everyone throws in a little bit.
> Live sports is where cable/sat tv still reign supreme. Sit down in front of the TV, put the game/match whatever on and it just works. No buffer, no putzing with computers.
Why do you think there would be "putzing with computers" for a streamed PPV event in 2017? Specialized devices have been available for quite some time now.
Except now a "cable outage" impacts everyone rather than just a single cable market.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
> I cannot even begin to comprehend how a person would think that is a worthwhile investment to watch at home.
I have a 10 foot screen. Anything less than an XD or IMAX screen (at a closer than halfway back the house) is going to be a LESS compelling experience than what many of us have at home.
Even with a big screen, if the house isn't set up properly it's going to be inferior. A local house with those posh recliners is like this because of how seats are laid out. The screen is great but there's really no good location to sit in the house because of how they have those posh recliners arranged.
Then there's the whole issue of sound. If the sound in the house is crap then that blows the whole thing.
Being there will cost you between 5K and 250K per butt.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Well, to be honest...
I know. Just did a DuckDuckGo search on MMA porn, and sure enough, there is a lot of it. But it's like the real thing is almost a Poe thing.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
...wanna know how I know you watch Wrestlehard? :D
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
"Countersued? For what?"
Violation of the arbitration clause in his service contract.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Terrusts? Getting hacked? Or drunk paddies?
The latter. I don't really follow MMA that much but I guess around here McGregor is known to have a rough following. In some ways it became a self-perpetuating problem. As small bars decided against showing it due to cost that meant bars that were showing it were faced with the possibility of more people, many unknown.
So then your medium sized bars said wait, with nobody else showing it we will be overrun with people, some unsavory, the fire marshal will no doubt be counting heads so we'll need serious security to turn pissed off people away when we are at capacity and to deal with any drunken louts that inside.
The pub around the corner from me is undergoing refurbishment so I'm down to two pubs a mile away or my local which is 600 yards away. Plus the bar at the gym that's 800 yards away.
You really have to drive to get to a bar? Bad planning..
Presumably that is the reason that one would be willing to spend a hundred bucks to watch something in the first place. That's a half-day's work at living wage where I live... why would anyone want to spend that kind of hard earned money on being entertained for such a short time in their own friggen home? I would imagine that the entire point of spending that kind of money is for some kind of special *experience* of an event, not just simply observing it, and you aren't going to get any kind of unique experience watching it at home, no matter how awesome your home theater is.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I was a kid when Mike Tyson was ascendant in the heavyweight ranks. My step-father used to have a few friends over for like $5.00 each and order the fight.
That was back when 4 friends at $5.00 each would cover the PPV.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Most local bars were charging admission for this (or any big fight). Typically $20-50 per person.
You must live in a strange place. Pubs are where most people go to watch major sporting events and I've never heard of any charging a door fee.
I'd much rather view the fight with 15-20 friends than with 100-200 strangers.
Personal preference I guess. You can't beat a vocal crowd for atmosphere...
Not sure what made me laugh harder; trying to compare chess to boxing in terms of demand, or claiming that the 37 people watching a "major" chess event somehow created unfathomable streaming problems.
The last WCC had an estimated 2 million people simultaneously streaming the live event feed, and these streaming viewers were allowed to switch between 3 different camera views. Lots of other streaming coverage was also available, with live analysis by various GM's taking place. All told the estimated viewership was between 100 and 200 million people. Thats very similar to boxing, you dumb ignorant fuck.
"His name was James Damore."
How the fuck is one mile away far enough that you feel the need to drive? It is a fifteen minute walk, come on.
You may want to slow down and read carefully. It's amazing how much this might help you understand what was actually written, rather than what you thought was written.