Live right now is the UFC 100, availble on pay-per-view from your cable provider as well as via live stream from UFC.com.
Interestingly, UFC is charging $44.99 for both the 300 kbps stream and the 600 kbps. What gives? Is anyone buying the lower bitrate stream? If you can’t support a broadband stream, you should probably be buying from your cable provider and not for online. But how ’bout making it even a remotely attractive option?
I’ve also been critical of live streaming technologies and portable devices for not protecting broadcasters’ rights. While most people will defer to an “official” broadcast for higher quality and color commentary, there is nothing stopping anyone from rebroadcasting via iPhone and uStream. This can’t be good for broadcasters. At $45 a pop, the 3500 people just on the stream I’m checking right now is costing UFC.com about $150,000 in lost revenue. Clearly something has to give. Will live streaming services be the next battle ground for online video copyright lawsuits?
That said, thanks to the guy with the iPhone sitting in front of his TV. I owe you a beer.
Update: In the time it took me to write this post, the number of users on the stream broke 5,000. This is starting to creep into the “serious money” zone.
Update 2: 17,500 viewers for the title bout, final round of Thiago vs. GSP. Thats some serious, serious coin lost to UFC for a big fight.