In all honesty, how many of us have watched an illegal stream of a fight rather than fork out the PPV dough? Millions of us have, and that was just the recent Oleksandr Usyk-Tyson Fury fight in May (though I, like many of you, no doubt, watched the fight legally, having paid for it). A reported 20 million people illegally streamed the fight from Saudi Arabia; this, in essence, cost the organizers of the card a staggering £95 million in lost revenue.
But fans argue how they are left with no choice other than to illegally stream a fight they cannot afford to miss, such passionate fight fans they are because the PPV prices are just too high – case in point, almost $90 for a recent Canelo fight. It is a collision of greed and of breaking the law but being almost forced to do so (some would say, and in fact have said, that the charging of $90 for a fight is in itself criminal). So what is the answer?
Well, aside from a big “crackdown,” as predicted by promoter Eddie Hearn, the lowering of ALL pay-per-view fight fees would be a great thing. And Turki Alalshikh has already set the wheels in motion for just that (see the Anthony Joshua-Daniel Dubois fight, yours, US fight fan, for just $19.99). Hearn argues that a cheaper price should equal more buys, and that less and less fans will opt to illegally stream a fight “and watch it on a s**t picture” if the PPV fee is acceptable. And we must agree that $19.99 cannot be argued as too steep.
“It’s an interesting time for pay-per-view to be honest,” Hearn told The Stomping Ground. “Obviously illegal streaming is a major problem, and I think there’ll be a big crackdown on that from an actual legal perspective for people doing it. But his Excellency (Turki) is 100 percent bang on – the cheaper the price, the less temptation there is to illegally stream. One of the problems in America is, the PPV is 90 bucks or 80 bucks. That is gonna encourage people to illegally stream. I think this [fight between AJ and Dubois] is £16.99 on DAZN.”
And Hearn argues that prices as low as $19.99 and £16.99 “take the thought out of illegal streaming, with fans no longer having to “break the law and watch on a s**t picture most of the time, with popups popping up left and right.”
Agreed, in full. Just so long as those PPV prices remain low and acceptable. Have we reached a point where we have seen the back of $90 PPV fees for a big fight? Or if not, are we on the verge of saying goodbye, or good riddance, to them? Let’s hope so.
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