Ordering Problems Hit PPV Fight

(Satellite Business News) — How many actual buys for Saturday night’s Mayweather-McGregor pay-per-view card will eventually be counted and booked by Showtime Networks — and how many more there could have been if all the technology worked as was planned—might be two different numbers based on the uproar on the Internet in the hours leading up to the event.

The main exhibition did not begin until after midnight on the east coast, and Floyd Mayweather said afterwards the combatants deliberately waited in their dressing rooms because of the widespread problems fans were having ordering the pay per-view program. “The reason we took so long [to enter the ring] is the pay-per-view server[s] in California and Florida crashed,” he said during a post-event press conference. “So we wanted to make sure we got everything back in place … so everyone could see pay-per-view, and give everybody a show.”

Mayweather undoubtedly did not want to start while there were still consumers trying to pay to watch. Those who reached agreements with Showtime to offer the event charged viewers $100 to watch in high-definition.

In a statement posted on the internet Saturday night before the bout began, Showtime said: “Due to high demand, we have reports of scattered outages from various cable and satellite [services] and the on-line offering. 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.”

But based on the explosion of complaints posted on the Internet, the problems ordering the pay-per-view event were far more than “scattered.” No cable, satellite TV or on-line video service which sold the fight was immune from criticism. And there were consumers who did order the fight who then complained they were unable to gain access to the event once they did.

How much the technical snafus, which have occurred before other major pay-per-view events, will impact the total number of buys was not immediately clear. Some have estimated that 4 million to 5 million buys would be made domestically, which would be a record. Showtime did not respond to an inquiry and had not distributed a statement about the pay-per-view results as of press time.

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