Lorenzo Fertitta: 140,000 People Viewed UFC 106 Illegally

UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta testified Wednesday at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on piracy of live sports broadcasting over the Internet, and he said the UFC is potentially losing tens of millions of dollars because people are illegally streaming UFC pay-per-views online.

"Just last month, the broadcast of UFC 106 from the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada, had over 271 unauthorized streams with over 140,000 views, and those are only the ones that our anti-piracy team and consultants identified," Fertitta told the committee. "There were likely more streams that we simply couldn't find."

In reality, there were certainly more streams that the UFC couldn't find: Internet piracy is a huge problem all over the world, and the 271 unauthorized streams that the UFC could find were definitely not the only unauthorized streams out there.

Fertitta said he wasn't addressing Congress to advocate for specific legislation against online piracy. Rather, Fertitta said he wanted to make Congress aware that it's a problem that will only grow without some type of action.

"I do not have sufficient mastery of the technical details to venture an opinion on how these streaming technologies will develop, but it is clear that these sites are making their money on the backs of stolen copyrighted works," Fertitta said.

One site Fertitta mentioned, Justin.tv, was represented at the hearing by its CEO, Michael Seibel. Justin.tv maintains that it doesn't attempt to facilitate illegal Internet piracy, and that it works with copyright owners to take unauthorized streams down. Fertitta said he appreciates the fact that Justin.tv has reached out to the UFC, but he said he thinks more could be done -- and that many sites are illegally profiting from the UFC's copyrighted broadcasts.

"I submit that they have deliberately chosen not to take reasonable precautions to deter the rampant infringement on their sites because they directly profit from the availability of popular infringing streams on those sites," Fertitta said.

Guilty

oggy420 wrote:

Guilty

I'm shocked, I would never do anything like that.

That's what you get for putting on weak PPVs. It's seems the UFC is trying to stronghold everyone, including the fans. I hope the people who stream PPVs continue to do so. Maybe the UFC will wake up and realize they can't get away with putting crap on PPV and expecting the fans to buy it.

Ninja\Rua/Fan wrote:

That's what you get for putting on weak PPVs. It's seems the UFC is trying to stronghold everyone, including the fans. I hope the people who stream PPVs continue to do so. Maybe the UFC will wake up and realize they can't get away with putting crap on PPV and expecting the fans to buy it.

Ninja if u want us to keep streaming them I will who am i to let u down lol.

At the same time, that's a lot of potential buys

Ninja\Rua/Fan wrote:

That's what you get for putting on weak PPVs. It's seems the UFC is trying to stronghold everyone, including the fans. I hope the people who stream PPVs continue to do so. Maybe the UFC will wake up and realize they can't get away with putting crap on PPV and expecting the fans to buy it.

^^ this .. get a TV deal, and only do PPV for cards that deserve it.. UFC 106 would have been a sweet spike card, and I dont care about the people that streamed it...

I have paid for many cards, go to bars that pay capacity to air it, watch their horrible reality show, and is an advertisement in itself for their product by word of mouth.. So when they put up a card not ppv worthy (IMO), or for some reason zi cant make it out/broke to order it.. I am going to stream it without a hint of guilt or remorse..

"Never feel sorry for a man that owns a plane"
-Anthony Hopkins (The Edge)

as the great Joe Rogan said: You cant stop the internet

Most of these people would just be going to a sports bar rather than actually buy it anyway I would assume. I know I wouldn't be buying it anyway

GolbeZ wrote:

Ninja\Rua/Fan wrote:

That's what you get for putting on weak PPVs. It's seems the UFC is trying to stronghold everyone, including the fans. I hope the people who stream PPVs continue to do so. Maybe the UFC will wake up and realize they can't get away with putting crap on PPV and expecting the fans to buy it.

^^ this .. get a TV deal, and only do PPV for cards that deserve it.. UFC 106 would have been a sweet spike card, and I dont care about the people that streamed it...

I have paid for many cards, go to bars that pay capacity to air it, watch their horrible reality show, and is an advertisement in itself for their product by word of mouth.. So when they put up a card not ppv worthy (IMO), or for some reason zi cant make it out/broke to order it.. I am going to stream it without a hint of guilt or remorse..

"Never feel sorry for a man that owns a plane"
-Anthony Hopkins (The Edge)

+1

not everyone can drop 50 bucks on a ppv every month. UFC has to understand these are tough economic times. Sometimes the aggressive style of Dana White back fires and he rubs fans the wrong way. Honestly it would be a good thing for him to step back and just chill out. He doesn't have to be such a nazi to the point where you ban sponsors just because a certain fighter who doesn't fight for your org is wearing it. How are you gonna tell Bj he cant wear RVCA when that has always been his main sponsor. I couldn't see cause i had a shitty stream but did he have to cover the RVCA ad's on his shorts?

They ought to be happy they get as many idiots to buy them as they do. I'll never buy another card. If I don't go to a sports bar, I'll stream.

Fuck Lorenzo! He is bitching about pennies on the dollar. He keeps this shit up and I will start listing him under Metallica as a five star douchebag.

Andrew the Raider King wrote:

Fuck Lorenzo! He is bitching about pennies on the dollar. He keeps this shit up and I will start listing him under Metallica as a five star douchebag.

Hey chill out a little Andrew. You don't know the hardship you put Metallica through when you download their songs. I read somewhere that Lars Ulrich couldn't afford a gold plated leer jet and instead had to buy a regular one. You'd be a a 5 star d-bag too if you had to make those kind of sacrifises.

We only made 140 million instead of 160 million

I never ordered a PPV for MMA until Affliction: Banned, now I order almost all UFC PPVS. I like the picture on my flatscreen TV over my flatscreen monitor I guess, and morons at Hooters are intolerable half the time.

I spend way too much on this crap. I should pirate more damn it.

maybe its just my computer but i find alsmost all of the illegal streams suck. The quality blows wether it's lag or blurry or whatever. I usually will search for a good stream but sometimes i just give up and wait till after to watch the fights on mmalinker or something. UFC is definitley cutting down the streams more and more though.

I wonder if any Somalians pirate the shows online? If so the govt won't get involved for sure. I have been waiting a year for a good video of the Navy blowing up a somali pirate ship.

oggy420 wrote:

maybe its just my computer but i find alsmost all of the illegal streams suck. The quality blows wether it's lag or blurry or whatever. I usually will search for a good stream but sometimes i just give up and wait till after to watch the fights on mmalinker or something. UFC is definitley cutting down the streams more and more though.

I found a really good stream

Care to enlighten me kind sir?