NEW YORK (AP) – For some boxing fans, the big fight Saturday night turned out to be between them and their cable companies.
Strong pay-per-view demand for the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight in Las Vegas caused problems for cable and satellite systems, especially when people tried to order at the last second, which delayed the start of the fight. It’s another sting to the reputation of an industry that’s already beset with criticism over poor service and competition from streaming video providers.
Still other boxing fans circumvented cable companies entirely, watching the fight live video-streaming apps such as Meerkat and Twitter’s Periscope, which let users broadcast video directly to the Internet from their smartphones.
Some who used this workaround had tried to buy the fight and failed. Others just didn’t want to pay to watch, bragging on Twitter how they saved the $100 fee. Some went as far as calling it the future and knock-out victory for social media, although there are no concrete numbers at this time of how many people watched via Meerkat or Periscope.
The next round may be between fight promoters and the streaming services. CBS, parent company of Showtime, which helped present the fight, declined to comment about viewers watching via the apps.