UFC Fight Pass was a disgrace at MayMac
When they charge the highest fee in history – $99 – for the biggest fight in combat sports history, they assume a high responsibility to deliver as promised.
UFC Fight Pass is the future of mixed martial arts, and an extraordinary resource for the sport. Of all the MMA-related things I buy each month, it’s the best value. But when it came time to stream the biggest fight in combat sports history, they let the fans drown.
As is their right and perhaps even responsibility, the UFC aggressively pursues individuals and businesses that pirate their signals. Thus it behooves them all the more to deliver to paying customers. And when they charge the highest fee in history – $99 – for the biggest fight in combat sports history, they assume a high responsibility to deliver as promised.
At $99 the usual process is to invite some friends over so you can all crowd around the television and cheer. That’s what happened all across the nation – friends came over, had a few beers, and then … nothing.
For countless fans, UFC Fight Pass failed to work. It was a disgraceful corporate performance, and whoever is responsible has to be fired. Fans were left to open their phones or find a laptop and look for a livestream on Facebook from those kind and lucky customers for whom PPV was working. Those reportedly were taken down one after the other, so the process to stop pirates worked great, but the process to deliver to paying customers not so much.
There is no excuse. This was predicted to be the most popular PPV in history, and it apparently was. There were reportedly problems as well with other providers, and the main event was even delayed.
Due to high demand, we have reports of scattered outages from various cable and satellite provides and the online offering, read a statement from Showtime. We will delay the start of the main event slightly to allow for systems to get on track. We do not expect a lengthy delay.
Fight Pass knew something was wrong, and offered an initial statement that proved to be factually incorrect.
https://twitter.com/UFCFightPass/status/901616616030429184
When it was not resolved shortly, hours later they posted again.
https://twitter.com/UFCFightPass/status/901657522691424256
But for the vast majority of customers, the $99 was already paid. The alternative provider they directed us towards was another $99. And no mention anywhere was made about a refund. And the alternate provider was only made known via posts on Twitter, the first one of which proved to be unreliable.
For the fans in the audience, there was a slight delay. But for countless fans at home, doing the right thing, and not using a pirated stream, there was nothing. It’s a disgrace, and if the UFC does not address the situation transparently, that’s another disgrace.
