- Joined
- Feb 5, 2014
- Messages
- 9,202
- Reaction score
- 6,703
Media UFC now forcing British fans to pay PPV fee to watch certain events on BT Sport
- Thread starter Phisher
- Start date
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2015
- Messages
- 484
- Reaction score
- 147
I phoned BT Sports earlier today, and got passed onto someone regarding the subject. Anyway, he told me that 3 PPV’s will be on PPV and the rest will be free. He said the 3 biggest cards of the year will be on the PPV channel.
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2015
- Messages
- 6,998
- Reaction score
- 6,922
I never knew why it was free anyway. UFC is Private company and no one likes to pay. Maybe dont watch it or make a switch to bellator?
If it hurts the ufc I'm sure they wont no longer do it. Something tells me they'll be a ok.
If it hurts the ufc I'm sure they wont no longer do it. Something tells me they'll be a ok.
I think you need to look at it like this, BT Sport got the rights to air UFC in the UK after the Eleven Sports deal thankfully fell through. The deal with Eleven Sports was that they had to secure a TV deal alongside this which they failed to do, hence why BT Sport got it back and signed the deal to get it back after they lost a handful of subscribers also (or were about to with cancellations due) from UFC fans who were (at that time) going to go with Eleven Sports (many being left in limbo due to not knowing where to go due to Eleven's lack of TV platform). The whole Eleven Sports was a nightmare for the UFC and would have absolutely ruined the sport and it's growth in the UK so when BT Sport announced they continued the rights they promised that the UK fans would get the UFC the same way as they did before, which meant many of these fans all flocked back to sign up to BT Sport under this impression which was great for the fans, great for the sport and great for BT Sport who were gaining all their subscribers back due to underestimating how many fans would leave once they no longer had the rights for UFC.
So on this basis they've seen that the UFC does have a good loyal fan base, as much as the sport is still new and growing it still does have a good fan base here, many being casuals but fans all the same who were happy enough to pay for BT Sport to get the UFC under this impression.
Then BT Sport all of a sudden announce this Box Office channel they are bringing in, mainly for boxing events (UK established sport) while promising that they wouldn't be putting UFC events on to Box Office while fans were asking if this would affect the UFC before signing up to new contracts with BT Sport for their UFC coverage but what do BT Sport do? They go against all that which not only feels like a kick in the teeth to many fans but they also feel completely mislead and lied to basically to dupe them back into contracts, take away the UFC from the regular viewing they promised and try see if they can get away with putting these on Box Office too, only to find out it's probably the worse thing they could have done because it's mislead fans, they're already paying what they are for BT Sport under the impression mentioned above and it's on at early hours of the morning for a sport that's mainly got more casual fans than hardcore at the moment and growing in the UK.
So where as they underestimated how beneficial it was for BT Sport to have UFC twice now they also saw this and thought "Hang on a minute, we can make some money off these fans" going against everything they promised when the fans subscribed to BT Sport again for UFC, a lot of fans subscribe to BT Sport solely for UFC (myself included) and this is what made BT Sport have a huge selling point to compete with Sky Sports (the leading sports channel) here in the UK, which BT Sport were doing very well with and fans were very happy as they weren't being greedy like Sky are known for.
But they've completely let fans down with all this situation and gone against that so I think this plays a huge part for why fans are so upset in regards to this whole situation which has no only resulted in tons of cancellations for BT Sport but they're pretty much all refusing to pay for this for various reasons as well as the principle in regards to what's mentioned above.
The other problem is, BT Sport decided to put out this Box Office channel but haven't covered all their subscribers who subscribe to them through various platforms. For example, Plusnet TV and various others which use the Youview platform have no access to the channel, so they don't even have the choice to purchase PPV events meaning BT Sport have taken it away from them with NO consideration what so ever, not a great way to treat your loyal customers. Then they have NO PS4 app, NO Now TV app, NO Xbox app, NO Smart TV app, I could go on and then they expect people to go out and buy Chromecasts (not beneficial for everyone) or sit and watch on their phones or laptops, which again, not many people feel they want to do considering they've to pay £20 to watch on a phone or laptop when people want it on their TV easily. They basically want the customers to do all the work and then complain when they have a lack of buys or hear about people streaming their events, if they made it more accessible too then maybe they would cut down on this but they don't and they expect customers to work around this for them, it's not only cheeky but a kick in the teeth to those fans they do this to. They really should have covered all bases before even launching this Box Office channel.
Point is, they're actually losing more this way than they were when they had it as they did normally without the Box Office event as they were gaining and keeping subscribers all the time where as now, they've been inundated with tons of cancellations, mislead and upset customers and barely any PPV buys is looking likely, they've completely shot themselves in the foot.
I don't think many UK fans would have a problem with purchasing the odd Box Office event if it was on at a reasonable hour, say if it was a huge UK event or something then the odd one or two (as long as they don't do it TOO much) probably wouldn't meet quite as much backlash plus alongside the fact they've also made it difficult for some of their customers who can't even access the BT Sport Box Office due to lack of supported ways to get it and certain platforms not even being updated in their channel lists (which by the way are all easily done as I've been told this myself from numerous people at BT, Youview, Plusnet etc.. and various other platforms) they've also taken it away completely for them expecting them to just buy it on their phone, which isn't gonna happen.
They've just completely messed it up basically and gone against everything they said they wouldn't do, broken their promises they gave fans and just completely mislead many of them and that is what has also caused so much of a backlash, specially while the sport is growing here in the UK which is not only hurting the sport, it's hurting the UFC (Dana White was happy to have UFC broadcast to us the way it was because he wants his product to reach our audiences while the sport is still growing which means events will sell out (where the real money is) and merchandise will sell continuously throughout the year via the EU store and at events also (another place where the money is) which is where it's hurting the UFC because it's driving fans away from the sport) and it's also hurting BT Sport as mentioned above because this is also driving people away to the streams or to not watch at all (UFC want people to see their best fights while the sport is growing too) and it's hurting all this also with their decision which really is just a case of trying to milk it out of fans since they brought in this Box Office channel last August/September time.
The Box Office works for Boxing here because it's a big sport and (usually) on at a reasonable hour but most fans of the UFC here are casuals that aren't going to pay for PPV events however have got into the UFC due to having BT Sport and being fans of football or whatever and combine that with the fact it's on at early hours more times than not, it's ridiculous to think this would be a good idea and be more profitable for BT Sport than it was the way they were doing it when they were gaining (and keeping) subscribers all the time as opposed to losing subscribers through loads of cancellations and refusals to pay for the Box Office events, so it doesn't work (profit wise) for BT Sport at all, it does the exact opposite.
I hope this helps
Last edited:
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2012
- Messages
- 14,074
- Reaction score
- 250
Yea non of that happenedUFC: Americans will now have to purchase an ESPN+ subscription and then also purchase the PPVs.
Americans: This is bullshit. We have to buy ESPN+ just to get the chance to buy the PPVs? I'll just stream.
Brits: Fucking Americans are too cheap to support the fighters and the sport. Pieces of shit streamers. Act like grown ups and follow the rules. Buy the PPVs!
UFC: Brits will now have to purchase a subscription and also buy the PPVs, much like the Americans.
Brits: What?? We have to pay twice?? This is fucking bullshit and I won't do it. Where are the streams??
Americans:
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2014
- Messages
- 16,534
- Reaction score
- 9,827
I'm not entirely sure it's because of illegal streaming, from what I've read the owner of BTSport has said that instead of attracting new customers he wants to get more money from the existing customers which would indicate it isn't.
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money...-coverage-looks-make-money-18m-customers.html
Of course I don't have all of the information, BT may profit from this, but I just fail to see how. Let's say the PPV sells 20k which I think is almost unobtainable but just as an example let's use it. That would be £400k from sales. Now with that in mind BTSport is roughly £40 a MONTH, so it would only take 10k people cancelling for a single month for them to lose that extra profit, let alone if they don't renew that membership at all. Not sure if you've used BTSport before but it's littered with mainly gambling site ads and I wonder if less people watching, meaning less bets on their sites, could have some impact on them too?
If they wanted to charge for PPV I think it should've just been for non BTSport customers. So people who pay for BTSport get it as part of their package, but people who don't pay for it would be able to pay PPV to watch each individual event, which if you only have BTSport for the UFC would turn out cheaper than paying monthly.
But I don't run a multi billion pound company so who gives a fuck what I think.
That is a really good idea!! The other thing too would be to have Fight Pass available and work the same way as the WWE Network does with the PPV's included at an affordable cost.
This works for Vince and is proof that the more affordable and accessible you make it for fans the more you profit. More numbers, more subscribers, more money yet the same content is distributed to all.
This PPV model is outdated now and no longer working, yet with what the WWE did with their platform they've not only made it affordable but most (I say most as there's always going to be people who will try get things for free) wouldn't mind paying a small subscription fee to get all the PPV's and content included as long as it's accessible for all and covering all the devices like the WWE Network has.
Also, when they do things like this they not only keep their fans but they also gain new fans all the time and this benefits them even more in the bigger picture because then their merchandise sales go up, their events sell out more than they usually would and it's profit all round for the company and affordable for fans who are very happy with the product.
It's a win/win situation and would work for the UFC. As long as Dana gets the Fight Pass app out there much better (IE Gaming consoles, Smart TV's, Now TV, all that stuff), I have no doubt that this would be massively profitable for the UFC the same way clearly it's worked for the WWE.
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2018
- Messages
- 11,664
- Reaction score
- 6,096
BT pays a substantial amount for the rights to broadcast UFC events, it sounds like some of you idiots thought the UFC just gifted the PPVs to the rest of the world or some shit.
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2014
- Messages
- 4,333
- Reaction score
- 1,113
Let me understand this, because I'm not gonna read thru everything. Y'all are mad because you will have to pay to order a PPV? You telling me PPV events were free for y'all all this time?!
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2009
- Messages
- 3,421
- Reaction score
- 761
Lol
You're so triggered on these forums it's amusing to read your posts.
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2018
- Messages
- 4,395
- Reaction score
- 1
Errr Football the biggest sport in the world was created in the UK, great logic though
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2009
- Messages
- 16,814
- Reaction score
- 1,208
Pretty much.. it's always been on cable channels, mainly premium subscription ones (Setanta, ESPN & BT Sports) except back in the good old days of Bravo. Iirc there was one they tried to put on PPV c.2006, but that didn't fly..
- Joined
- Sep 29, 2013
- Messages
- 5,582
- Reaction score
- 367
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2006
- Messages
- 18,457
- Reaction score
- 3,577
Anyone in the UK want to break down what you pay or what the cheapest option would be? I'm not looking for an argument. I'm just curious. All I see is people saying you already have to pay for BT sports. So what's the cost breakdown for everything? Internet, TV viewing, BT Sport? I'm assuming you have to already pay for TV to get BT Sports but I'm not even sure of that?
I listed the cheapest paid break-down for average cable users in the US of which I am one. Obviously a lot of people pay a LOT more for cable TV along with their internet but that's because they choose to pay for more premium channels like HBO and the like. You also can't include things like netflix which again, is a choice.
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2010
- Messages
- 16,361
- Reaction score
- 8,924
You would think the UFC would make it the easy as possible to watch the entire card on one channel.
It's almost like they want UFC fans to be confused on where to purchase their product.
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2009
- Messages
- 22,730
- Reaction score
- 2,857
They are pricks
But I’ll probably pay it anyway
Does anyone know if I can just record it and watch it in the morning though
Unless bones gives me some of his stash I ain’t staying up till 5am anymore I’m an old man
But I’ll probably pay it anyway
Does anyone know if I can just record it and watch it in the morning though
Unless bones gives me some of his stash I ain’t staying up till 5am anymore I’m an old man
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2012
- Messages
- 9,154
- Reaction score
- 2,140
I think this is hilarious to be honest. I'm a night person anyway so watching late early in the morning wouldn't bother me. Just DVR it if you can't. We have to pay like 60 here for this shit? Idk because I never buy them regardless but the excuse that we should get it for free because it comes on at like 2 or 3am over there seems like a good deal to me. I wish they had some sort of setup where we could just pay for individual fights. I might fork over 20 bucks or so for the Main event or other intriguing fights on the card if they're interesting. I'm not paying 60 or 70 dollars for one good fight or when they have 2 wmma fights on the card.
- Joined
- Sep 29, 2012
- Messages
- 7,524
- Reaction score
- 8,792
Funny to see Americans trying to defend BT Sports/UFC. The whole world doesn't fall for the ppv scam, get over it.
