UFC 313 prey to technical problems on PPV, stated ESPN problems

The technical problems tormented the UFC 313 last Saturday evening while the fans and the combatants expressed their frustrations while trying to buy payment by view via ESPN +.

Social media exploded after potential viewers realized that they were unable to look at the event titled by Ankalaev’s unanimous victory over Magomed over Alex Pereira.

While the UFC refused to comment on the situation, sources told MMA Fighting that managers were “furious” of the situation, in particular with payment to vision is still one of the main financial engines of the company.

The CEO of the UFC, Dana White, briefly discussed the problems at the press conference after the fights of the UFC 313, although he did not have any answers on the reasons why the technical problems occurred.

“Oh yeah, it did me,” replied White. “They had trouble buying it on ESPN +. I don’t know what happened with their platform tonight. There were a lot of upset people. »»

ESPN has published a statement to MMA Fighting concerning the à la carte payment of the UFC 313 and angry customers attacking because of problems with the purchase and the look of the event via the streaming platform.

“Unfortunately, we have experienced a technical problem that had an impact on purchases of the UFC PPV on ESPN + shortly after 10 pm,” ESPN said in the press release. “Our teams have identified and resolved the problem, restoring full functionality before the main event. We apologize for the disadvantages and take measures to ensure better experience in the future. »»

Sunday, The New York Times have reported that ESPN planned to put the UFC 313 card available to ESPN + subscribers at no additional cost, although this does not solve the problem of users who could not look at the event as it occurred live.

This is the second consecutive week when streaming problems tormented the brands belonging to Disney after there were complaints on the vision of the 2025 academy, broadcast on Hulu. Now ESPN + has been affected by the problems surrounding the UFC 313 and the timing could not be worse.

The UFC is currently in an exclusive negotiation period with ESPN compared to the company’s broadcasting rights agreement, which expires at the end of 2025. The exclusive negotiation period takes place until April 15, then UFC can start to align the offers of other potential contenders. In 2018, the promotion signed with ESPN on a seven -year agreement which also included PPV programs, which are available to buy exclusively via ESPN +.

Unfortunately, users frequently complained about technical problems that afflict the streaming service over the time that the UFC has disseminated events on ESPN. This could spell bad news for ESPN while the specific sport network tries to keep the UFC, which was one of the main attractions for ESPN + when the streaming service was launched for the first time.

There is no shortage of potential distribution partners in the running for UFC rights, in particular at a time when promotion is warmer than ever with regard to ticket sales, sponsorships and merchandising. Before signing an agreement with ESPN in 2018, the UFC was very close to signing a contract with Amazon Prime Video and other players like Netflix could potentially enter the tender to win the precious diffusion rights after the expiration of the exclusive negotiation window on April 15.

While key executives like the president and chief of the TKO Group Holdings, Mark Shapiro, have praised working relationships with ESPN in the past, the technical problems that effectively condemn UFC 313 could have great -reaching consequences.