Andre Yoskowitz
6 Jan 2010 17:55
UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) president Dana White has said today that the sport is preparing to sue individuals and websites that offer the MMA content illegally.
The UFC made about $350 million in PPV revenue in 2009, but many websites have been streaming the UFC PPV events for free online, while they are playing live.
UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta said his anti-piracy group had found 271 illegal streams of the UFC 106 event, with a total of 140,000 viewers.
"The piracy of live sporting events is illegal, it kills jobs, and it threatens the expansion of U.S. based companies," Fertitta added. "The UFC is potentially losing millions of dollars a year from piracy."
White, clearly extremely angered by pirates, says the company has been considering the legal actions since 2007 but will take the leap this year due to heavier "losses."
"It's going to be a battle, man," White says, via MMAJ. "It's going to be a battle, but I'm ready to {censored} fight.We're gonna go after them, we're gonna go after them hard, and we're gonna hurt them."
White readily admits however that the lawsuits will cost the MMA far more money then the piracy is "costing them."
"[Piracy] hasn't cost us anything compared to what it's going to cost us to go after these guys. It's gonna cost us a lot of money, but guess what — it's gonna cost them a lot of money. It's gonna get to the point where it's like, you know what, [expletive] it, maybe we shouldn't pirate MMA any more. You got these websites like Justin.tv, and they pirate all kinds of things. They play all kinds of [expletive] on there. Well, we're gonna make it where it's not worth it to put UFC events up on the website," he says.
PPVs cost $45 per event in SD and $56 in HD.