https://torrentfreak.com/ufc-links-increase-in-piracy-numbers-to-espn-price-hikes-240809/
Mark Shapiro, President of UFC parent company TKO, links ESPN price hikes to an increase in piracy numbers.
Yeah you don't say.
They're at like a minimum of $80 a fight at this point.
Of course people are going to pirate that shit, because that's far far too expensive.
And they pump them out at a steady clip these days, which is great for people into the sport, but at that price it adds up quickly. And like Tyson fights back in the day, you might only get a few minutes of actual fighting for that price.
Man, even pirating UFC fights is more effort than it's worth anymore. So much fluff. There's this guy who pirates it, then he edits it down to just the fights and posts it. He's the real champ.
I've been watching a bunch of Olympic boxing, and it's crazy how many fights they can get in when you remove all the fluff. Of course, it's only 3 rounds, but even so, think I've been able to watch 4 or more fights in an hour.
As long as people pirate there is still hope to get them back with a good service and price.
I on the other hand am a lost customer I just stopped consuming most of media. I rather spent an hour on the Threadyverse than watching a fight, a game or even a TV series.
Random anecdote - years ago there was a hurricane heading in our general direction but not a direct hit. There was also a big UFC event that my partner wanted to watch. A friend invited him to a local sports bar to watch it, but I asked him to please stay home because the weather was still shit.
So he did and I found it on the high seas, problem solved.
The friend went to the sports bar and got stranded when the parking lot flooded pretty badly and his car was ruined.
Yeah, that isn't how economics work, they increased the price because they believe it will be a more profitable price point. I guess they could argue they lost the price sensitive customers to piracy and are just giving up on that segment and focusing on the people who just pay whatever?
Even if it was, why screw over the people who are doing what you want? Price hikes arent hurting pirates lol.
Maximising their return on investment presumably figuring that the increased fee will bring in more money despite some customers cancelling.
Are you saying that increasing prices of a good or service to the point where people don't want to pay for it anymore doesn't contribute to a rise in black market sales and distribution of the good or service?
I think you're mistaken.
You are right my argument was predicated on the price rise being justified by piracy not the cause of it. If they don't like ESPNs pricing model can't they license their content elsewhere?
Yeah exactly. Like when Netflix increased their prices and prevented password sharing and everybody claimed that they would foothold business. Turns out that the profits lost on people who stopped using their services paled in comparison to the profits gained from the price hikes and new people signing up after being kicked off their old account.