The tens of thousands of boxing fans who reportedly used the Periscope live streaming app to view the Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao fight last weekend, are likely to have cost promoters millions in lost PPV revenue.
ESPN reports Periscope streams were bringing in up to 10,000 views at a time, with multiple streams available simultaneously. Those turning in via the iOS-exclusive streaming app were, of course, skirting the cost of up to $100 to watch the fight on TV.
Now Todd DuBoef of Top Rank promotions, the co-promoter of the fight, said his organisation would be taking legal action against the company, those streaming the media and even those tuning into the stream.
“We’ll have to pursue any people who are allowing people to distribute something that is behind a proprietary wall,” DuBoef told the LA Times.
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“When we start finding out more about it and identify the people who are posting on social media we’ll know their names and we’ll definitely go after them.”
Despite Twitter’s CEO seemingly bragging about the success of Periscope on Saturday night (“And the winner is… @Periscopeco,” he tweeted!), the streaming company bought by Twitter earlier this year has vowed to tackle folks using the app to infringe upon copyrighted content.
Speaking at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference (via TechRadar), co-founder Kayvon Beykpour said: “From an operational standpoint we were completely prepared for our partners to reach out to us and request we respect their IP rights.
“We basically have a team that looks at an email channel and if someone says, ‘Hey this stream is violating our copyright,’ we take it down.”
“We had 66 requests for take down and took down 30 of them all within a matter of minutes. The ones we didn’t take down ended because you can imagine how every stream isn’t super long.”
Read more: Twitter buys Periscope
It’s the second time in recent weeks Periscope has incurred the wrath of U.S. cable network HBO. The company also issued takedown notices to those using the app to stream Game of Thrones episodes across the web.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
