Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2009 5:55 am
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The Ultimate Fighting Championship's anti-piracy efforts show no signs of slowing down.
The organization today announced it has reached "confidential settlements" with more than 500 businesses and individuals as a result of illegal broadcasts and viewing of UFC events.
The settlements span over the past two years.
"We are committed to standing toe to toe with anyone trying to illegally broadcast or stream UFC events," UFC President Dana White stated. "Today's announcement further drives home the fact that we are fully prepared to pursue any business or individual that steals our programming."
The UFC really ramped up its anti-piracy efforts this year, and as White told MMAjunkie, he sees only one surefire way to get pirates' attention.
"When people start going to jail, people will stop doing it," White said.
UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta testified before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee earlier this year during a referendum on Internet piracy of sporting events. He said the UFC's anti-piracy team, for example, had uncovered 271 illegal streams of January's UFC 106 event with more than 140,000 viewers.
"The piracy of live sporting events is illegal, it kills jobs, and it threatens the expansion of U.S.-based companies," Fertitta told lawmakers. "The UFC is potentially losing millions of dollars a year from piracy."
The UFC annually offers approximately a dozen PPV offerings and in 2009 earned an estimated $349 million in PPV revenue. The events cost $44.95 each ($55.95 for the HD version) both via cable/satellite providers and via official online outlets.
Currently, the promotion has just a handful of authorized online PPV affiliates – UFC.com, Yahoo! Sports and MMAFighting.com, for example – who charge the same $44.95 fee. Lawrence Epstein, the UFC's general legal counsel, said the Internet price is mandated by the promotion's contract with pay-per-view providers such as DirecTV and DISH Network and cannot be lowered.
All other outlets – including those who charge a discounted fee – are doing so illegally. In addition to cracking down on those sites, Epstein said the UFC continues to educate its fans.
"Are there always going to be people that are going to steal? Yeah," said Epstein. "There are going to be people that rob convenience stores and banks, too. You can put up bars, you can put up cameras, but people continue to do bad things. You're not going to stop all of it.
"I think this is about stopping the good majority of law-abiding citizens who, without education, might not understand that what they're doing is not the right thing to do."Source: http://www.mmajunkie.com
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