{The article below is written by Emma Woollacott for Forbes. Read the original article here.}
HBO and Showtime, which have the rights to this weekend’s boxing match between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr, are getting their gloves on early, taking action against two pirate sites that were planning to stream the fight.
Along with promoters Top Rank and Mayweather Promotions, they have filed a complaint with a federal court in Florida against boxinghd.net and sportship.org, which had announced plans to live-stream the fight. They’ve asked for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, as well as, rather oddly, damages to compensate for expected losses and legal costs.
According to TorrentFreak, it’s the first time ever that a lawsuit has been filed over piracy that hasn’t yet taken place – Minority Report, disappointingly, not having attracted the same concern.
But the complaint claims that the two sites have form. “Plaintiffs are informed and believe and on that basis allege that Defendants have a long history of promoting infringing streams of copyrighted broadcasts of boxing matches,” it reads, listing the May 4, 2013 fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr and Robert Guerrero, as well as the July 12, 2014 fight between Erislandy Lara and Canelo Alvarez, as examples.
The stakes are high. Excitement about the contest – six years in the planning – means it’s expected to raise more than $300 million. At least half of this will come from pay-per-view sales at up to $100 a time – in numbers expected to significantly exceed the 2.48 million that watched the fight between Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya in 2007.
And because it’s a live match, HBO and Showtime have a narrow window of opportunity to collect. While people are still prepared to pay for, say, Game of Thrones for quite a while after its initial screening, few will have much interest in watching the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight once it’s over and the result is known.
This makes it a potential gold mine for the streaming sites too, who have been advertising shamelessly.
“If you can’t afford to buy tickets then simply watch Mayweather vs Pacquiao here,” read the ad on boxinghd.net. “We will provide with nothing but the freshest and the most reliable high quality live links.”
You can watch the live streaming of Pacquiao vs Mayweather by clicking the following link: http://mannypacquiao-floydmayweather-stream.blogspot.com/2015/02/pacquiao-vs-mayweather-live-stream-free.html
But the threat appears to have worked – at least for now. Both boxinghd.net and sportship.org have been taken offline, although HBO and Showtime are still calling for a court order actually shutting the sites down to make sure that they don’t magically reappear on Saturday.
And they are, of course, just two sites amongst many. Indeed, HBO and Showtime still have a massive job ahead if they’re to make a serious dent in piracy on the big night. Teams of experts will no doubt be hard at it detecting pirate links and attempting to get them taken down.
There’s always the option of paying to watch at one of the many sports bars screening the fight.
However, entirely by design, many viewers around the world will be able to watch the match in the comfort of their own homes for substantially less than the $100 price in the US.
In the UK, for example, it’s available through Sky Box Office for just £19.99, or around $31. In Scandinavia, it’s around $60, and in Spain just $13. In Pacquiao’s home country, the Philippines, the fight will be broadcast live on both cable TV and free-to-air.
And in Mexico, TV companies Televisa and Azteca have also won the right to show the fight for free; get a good deal on a flight, therefore, and it might just be worth considering a weekend away.
HBO and Showtime, which have the rights to this weekend’s boxing match between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr, are getting their gloves on early, taking action against two pirate sites that were planning to stream the fight.
Along with promoters Top Rank and Mayweather Promotions, they have filed a complaint with a federal court in Florida against boxinghd.net and sportship.org, which had announced plans to live-stream the fight. They’ve asked for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, as well as, rather oddly, damages to compensate for expected losses and legal costs.
According to TorrentFreak, it’s the first time ever that a lawsuit has been filed over piracy that hasn’t yet taken place – Minority Report, disappointingly, not having attracted the same concern.
But the complaint claims that the two sites have form. “Plaintiffs are informed and believe and on that basis allege that Defendants have a long history of promoting infringing streams of copyrighted broadcasts of boxing matches,” it reads, listing the May 4, 2013 fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr and Robert Guerrero, as well as the July 12, 2014 fight between Erislandy Lara and Canelo Alvarez, as examples.
The stakes are high. Excitement about the contest – six years in the planning – means it’s expected to raise more than $300 million. At least half of this will come from pay-per-view sales at up to $100 a time – in numbers expected to significantly exceed the 2.48 million that watched the fight between Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya in 2007.
And because it’s a live match, HBO and Showtime have a narrow window of opportunity to collect. While people are still prepared to pay for, say, Game of Thrones for quite a while after its initial screening, few will have much interest in watching the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight once it’s over and the result is known.
This makes it a potential gold mine for the streaming sites too, who have been advertising shamelessly.
“If you can’t afford to buy tickets then simply watch Mayweather vs Pacquiao here,” read the ad on boxinghd.net. “We will provide with nothing but the freshest and the most reliable high quality live links.”
You can watch the live streaming of Pacquiao vs Mayweather by clicking the following link: http://mannypacquiao-floydmayweather-stream.blogspot.com/2015/02/pacquiao-vs-mayweather-live-stream-free.html
But the threat appears to have worked – at least for now. Both boxinghd.net and sportship.org have been taken offline, although HBO and Showtime are still calling for a court order actually shutting the sites down to make sure that they don’t magically reappear on Saturday.
And they are, of course, just two sites amongst many. Indeed, HBO and Showtime still have a massive job ahead if they’re to make a serious dent in piracy on the big night. Teams of experts will no doubt be hard at it detecting pirate links and attempting to get them taken down.
There’s always the option of paying to watch at one of the many sports bars screening the fight.
However, entirely by design, many viewers around the world will be able to watch the match in the comfort of their own homes for substantially less than the $100 price in the US.
In the UK, for example, it’s available through Sky Box Office for just £19.99, or around $31. In Scandinavia, it’s around $60, and in Spain just $13. In Pacquiao’s home country, the Philippines, the fight will be broadcast live on both cable TV and free-to-air.
And in Mexico, TV companies Televisa and Azteca have also won the right to show the fight for free; get a good deal on a flight, therefore, and it might just be worth considering a weekend away.
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