Media UFC now forcing British fans to pay PPV fee to watch certain events on BT Sport

[Orochimaru 大蛇丸]

Muricans just keep showing how stupid they are in this thread lol they still think that there is no time zones

How dare you

 

[Scafatl]

We have to pay around £30 in Australia to watch them....whats your point?

 

[CC27]

I don't think the UFC cares how BT sport distributes the event? I thought that the UFC sells the distribution rights to the provider. How the provider wished to turn that into something profitable is up to them. Is that not how it works?

Believe thats how it is, its BT SPorts dec not UFC's.

 

[Tray]

I have been buying UFC PPV since UFC 1 and I think it is crazy that people are complaining that they will have to pay for entertainment.
We are supporting the fighters and the sport by paying for the events etc and I'm good with that.

 

[eighterumg5]

Lol at people complaining about who pays more like it's some kind of pissing contest.

it's a pricing contest

 

[Taco Loco]

I think good! bullshit we gotta pay damn nearly $70 bucks to watch a fuckin event.

 

[CalSand]

I think it is about time you socialist pig-bangers got around to not being subsidized at our expense!

Lol. I might have chosen different words but yeah... we've been paying for these cards so Europeans can have them for free since time began.

Now we're all forced to pie rat.

 

[KawhiDoh]

wellgoodluckwiththat.

 

[chubbman]

Well I cancelled BT when UFC was free because BT TV is absolute muck. I'll stick to streaming fights I'm super excited for. And come to sherdog for the rest.

I cancelled BT sport last month. Fight pass is 5 quid a month. I don’t mind being two weeks behind. It gives me enough time to read on here which stinkers to skip.

 

[ThunderL1ps]

Stop watching. You're really not missing anything.

 

[thoughtsone]

it costs $6, all you need is internet

the point is, you dont have to buy cable and all that shiz, all you need is espn+ ($6) and internet

in the uk you need BT Sport ($40) and internet

Not true. Depending on the card you need fight pass for the first 2 or 3 fights. ESPN plus to buy the ppv and watch some card prelims and regular espn for some othe card prelims. They move them all around so it's not the same everytime but to see every card you need a cable package with epsn which is at least 30 to 50 by itself depending, ESPN plus 6.00, fight pass 10.00, then the ppv 60.00.

I buy all of them and watch every fight and it's obnoxious how difficult they make it.

 

[TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle]

More money will be lost on cancelled BT subscriptions than gained from people buying the PPVs.

 

[Fraz]

Any UK MMA fan that doesn't buy this is a casual and a traitor. The UFC needs us more than ever.

 

[lsa]

I honestly would be surprised if they get 20 buys.

Didn't Conor get them to pay for a press conference once?
The world are full of idiots.

 

[carlosevenos]

People say we brits were spoilt and maybe we are. But if anything the americans are spoilt. They get pretty much all the cards prime time. I'd love to be able to watch UFC fights out at a bar and make a night out of it, but starting at 3am doesn't make it possible.
No doubt the UFC rip off americans, but if I lived there I wouldn't mind paying ppv for a decent card, as I know I'll be able to watch it "live" and "prime time". If I couldn't afford it, I'd go to a bar. I think americans don't realise how shit it is to have every card finishing at 6am.
So yes we were spoilt. but would any of you pay that much for cards that you can't even watch live and have the experience of it being saturday night and being able to watch all fights without being exhausted.
Some people will still pay it, but to send a message, people should avoid paying.

 

[carlosevenos]

Also the UFC continues to water down their product and people keep paying it. UFC isn't worthy of PPV anymore really anyway. The product was so much better 5-6 years ago

 

[BobsyaUncle]

Won’t be buying, they need McGregor to be fighting for a move like this to be successful.

 

[Shamrockftw]

Fuck UFC and BT sports, staying up till 6am whilst paying for the event on top of the BT sports subscription? fuck that

 

[The Merchant]

Nice might get some sleep on saturday nights now. I might buy one in the future depending on the card, won't be buying any of the first couple of PPV regardless of content, to hopefully get them to rethink this model.

 

[AP_RESURRECTION]

Never been free as always had to pay at least the monthly channel subscription cost on top of cable or satellite bill.

The WWE tried it and soon found that nobody paid for it even though it is a lot more popular than the UFC in the UK. WWE now show their PPV's on the WWE Network here in the UK. UFC should do the same for UK viewers with Fight Pass instead & only charge full PPV rates for UK or European events which are broadcast at a reasonable time. I wonder how many Americans buy UK PPV's on Saturday afternoons/early evening EST/CST/PST? Would you pay if the cards started at 3am & you had to pay extra for them still?

I fully understand that people are frustrated and hope the scheme doesn't work. But the question is whether the UFC can force the charge or not. We will see whether it sticks after a year. UFC is not the type to back down when it comes to aggressive pricing. We will see.