White Says Future Is Here With UFC.tv, Online Pirates Should Prep For Jail Time

While this past weekend's "UFC 126: Silva vs. Belfort" event will always be remembered for the front kick heard 'round the world, UFC president Dana White said the card might also be known as the launching point for the future of the company. In conjunction with the New York-based NeuLion, Inc., the UFC offered an enhanced pay-per-view broadcast at UFC.tv, and White believes the format is the wave of the future. While the UFC has long offered its pay-per-view broadcasts via online streams, the partnership with NeuLion includes options for fans to choose multiple camera angles from which to view the fight, as well as the option to listen to a variety of audio feeds, including direct feeds from each fighter's corners. The product will eventually feature additional interactive options such as live chatting with fellow UFC fans, as well as live scoring by viewers. "I think that's where everything is going," White said. "As technology grows, the world keeps getting smaller and smaller. As we go into all these countries, people all over the world love the UFC and love a fight. This thing always made sense to me."
This past weekend, White confirmed his commitment to fighting the uphill battle against online piracy. "The future is the Internet," White said. "That's why we're fighting. That's why we're taking such a strong stance. "You've got to understand, all this stuff is brand new. Even when the music thing happened with Napster and all that stuff, if I take your song and let people download the song, the song isn't ruined. People still want to hear that song or the album or whatever it is. When our event gets stolen, it's dead. It's over. You know the results. A live event is different than anything else." And while this past week's announcements focused on a handful of websites providing illegal streams, White confirmed his legal team will continue to press for enforcement at all levels of the piracy pipeline. "We're fighting it hard," White said. "Listen, I said it when we made this announcement, and I'll say it again, people are going to jail."

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Choosing your own camera angle....listening to a corner's audio feed...scoring the fight myself and comparing it to others...

These are all fantastic ideas.

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Posted by scoozna

Choosing your own camera angle....listening to a corner's audio feed...scoring the fight myself and comparing it to others...

These are all fantastic ideas.

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Don't forget people going to jail! I love that idea too

facebook stream was cool

Impressive stuff

Sounds really good hope it kicks of asap

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Posted by 1daveufc

Sounds really good hope it kicks of asap

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It already kicked off actually...It was available for last weekend's event.

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Posted by icantthinkofanything

facebook stream was cool

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The idea of it was cool but the quality sucked balls, imo.

Unfortunately Dana's not going to be able to send most of these pirates to jail. Nice dream he has, though. Dana, if the RIAA and MPAA couldn't stop the internet, you're not gonna be able to either.

Sorry, dude.

Before 126 there was a trial version. One round of Edgar/Maynard. I have 20mps (In Aus thats pretty good!) And it wasnt perfect. The angles where cool, I like the birds eye view. My sound glitch though and couldnt turn off the spanish! Had english playing at the same time!! Pretty cool, But maybe a free event could help make a believer!

Oh, And im no pirate, I have bought like all but 2 UFC PPV since UFC 68

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Posted by MiniMan

Oh, And im no pirate, I have bought like all but 2 UFC PPV since UFC 68

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I have no problems admitting that I freely pirate copious amounts of material.

That being said, I pay for the UFC events I really want to watch, I go to the movies for movies I really want to see, I buy DVD's I really want to own, and I purchase CD's of bands I truly care about.

Beyond a certain point, though, I rip, download, stream, and copy just about everything else.

In other news, New York City has announced its plan to rid the city of all rats with the use of a better mouse trap.

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Posted by ncordless

In other news, New York City has announced its plan to rid the city of all rats with the use of a better mouse trap.

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Pretty much.

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Posted by BlueSkiesBurn

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Posted by MiniMan

Oh, And im no pirate, I have bought like all but 2 UFC PPV since UFC 68

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I have no problems admitting that I freely pirate copious amounts of material.

That being said, I pay for the UFC events I really want to watch, I go to the movies for movies I really want to see, I buy DVD's I really want to own, and I purchase CD's of bands I truly care about.

Beyond a certain point, though, I rip, download, stream, and copy just about everything else.

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I have a simular outlook as well. The thing I hate about what white is saying,or at least what he is hinting at is that the situation is black and white. If you have streamed one PPV they act as if you must have streamed them all and the hammers coming down on you.
The truth is,i'm willing to bet that a lot of hardcore fans have probably paid for the majority and possibly have streamed a few as well. Most people I know are like this.
I know a lot of people will have objections to this but I don't see much of a difference in watching one from a stream or going to the bar and watching it.
Sure i'm paying for beer but my local hangout does not have a cover charge to watch and if I do the same thing at home i'm just saving a little more on beer and food. Either way if i really wanted I can watch it for freeat my house or the bar,but last weekend I still shelled out 54.99 for the PPV and have done so many a times before.

Its real funny how Dana White went from somewhat alright, to now just unbarring to listen to.. When is he going to just drop it with this whole online straming battle? Has he tried to watch any of these streams? Its very painful for me at least if I try to watch them. Laggy alot of times. I think he has done everything in his power to shut down 90% of the streams online. Now he wants to throw people in jail for (if anything) helping the UFC? Yeah they are losing a few bucks, but people are bringing in more fans IMO. How rich does the UFC have to get?
All he needs to do is make the PPV's cheaper per event, or just start a channal which you can pay yearly and get the events at a discount price......maybe thats a start!!!!!
But he expects people who make an average living to afford $60 dollars per ppv? lol yeah right. So your dedicated fans get screwed over in the long run Dana. So it shows you how he and the Fertitas feel about the hardcore fans, just trying to watch a sport they love.

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Posted by mrsmiley

I have a simular outlook as well. The thing I hate about what white is saying,or at least what he is hinting at is that the situation is black and white. If you have streamed one PPV they act as if you must have streamed them all and the hammers coming down on you.
The truth is,i'm willing to bet that a lot of hardcore fans have probably paid for the majority and possibly have streamed a few as well. Most people I know are like this.
I know a lot of people will have objections to this but I don't see much of a difference in watching one from a stream or going to the bar and watching it.
Sure i'm paying for beer but my local hangout does not have a cover charge to watch and if I do the same thing at home i'm just saving a little more on beer and food. Either way if i really wanted I can watch it for freeat my house or the bar,but last weekend I still shelled out 54.99 for the PPV and have done so many a times before.

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I'm right there with you. I don't care, though. I don't have enough money to spread it around to all the things I want to enjoy. Most people don't these days. I have one of the largest DVD (purchased) collections you'll probably ever see, but I also burn DVD's as well.

I'm doing my part. If the RIAA, MPAA, and UFC want me stop burning, downloading, and steaming sh*t (I'm gonna leave this typo because it's hilarious, but I meant streaming), they should quit charging me an arm and a leg to enjoy it live.

I remember when movies were like $5, now you have to f*cking budget just to go to an evening at the movies. You seriously have to account for the $20 at the window (especially since everything is in 3D these days and costs extra) account for dinner beforehand, and account for the snack counter. It's seriously a $60-$80 night on some nights.

Some UFC's aren't worth the full price. The cards get changed, the cards aren't overly compelling, people get injured after you've already told people you'd get it at your house, etc...

CD's are an entirely different story. You buy a CD because you like a couple songs and it turns out that the rest of the CD blows ass. Might as well save yourself the money and either pay .99 cents to iTunes for the one song, find someone who has the CD and burn it, or just download them.

People in charge of entertainment act like the everyman has hundreds and thousands of dollars that we can just spend on their sh*t, we don't. Hell, the NFL pisses me off, too. If a game isn't completely sold out, they black it out on TV. It's not exactly like I can just up and say, "I'm going to the Niners game today because I don't have anything else to do"

I go to at least 3 USC games every season and they break me every time. Hotels, souvenirs, food, drinks, tailgating. Stuff is expensive. They need to realize that attendance, purchases, viewership, and orders would actually increase if they quit charging so damn much for things.

Although I don't know if I'd use it, mainly because I tend to get better quality with the Yahoo Sports streams (they go up to 1200K where I could only go to 600K with UFC's), I do like some of the ideas, especially the interactive scoring feature. I'm one of those who always likes to score rounds as fights progress so this would be a fun way to see how I score it perhaps compared to others, but ultimately I'd like to see them do what HBO now does with boxing-show the judges' round-by-round scores after every round.
As far as the piracy and stuff, I used to do the free streaming thing when I started out but decided to pay when I found Yahoo streamed them for better quality plus it's a good way to support the promotion and the fighters. If I'm gonna do the streaming stuff online instead of paying, it's gonna be for the "p" word.

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Posted by DCRage

Although I don't know if I'd use it, mainly because I tend to get better quality with the Yahoo Sports streams (they go up to 1200K where I could only go to 600K with UFC's), I do like some of the ideas, especially the interactive scoring feature. I'm one of those who always likes to score rounds as fights progress so this would be a fun way to see how I score it perhaps compared to others, but ultimately I'd like to see them do what HBO now does with boxing-show the judges' round-by-round scores after every round.
As far as the piracy and stuff, I used to do the free streaming thing when I started out but decided to pay when I found Yahoo streamed them for better quality plus it's a good way to support the promotion and the fighters. If I'm gonna do the streaming stuff online instead of paying, it's gonna be for the "p" word.

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Ping-Pong championship?

finally a realistic way to try to deal with piracy. It's not ever going to be stopped, but what the companies that are trying to fight it can do is design new formats of the media being pirated with better quality, more options, etc. You are never going to stop piracy, but if you can offer an alternative with a similar, but improved format at a reasonable price you can definitely cut away a chunk of it and regain some of the revenue you otherwise wouldn't have received.

This is a realistic and intelligent way to deal with pirating. Trying to brute-force the general public with threats of jail time, cease and desist orders, etc. is not, and trying to do it only makes us all feel a lot safer stealing their media every time they fail to prosecute another person. They need to stop with it, because it clearly isn't working.

A free Fight night event for everyone using this would be great and am sure if its good it will sell pretty well. Obvisouly people from the UK wont pay for this(well maybe a few) because we get it cheap enough on ESPN, but it does sound pretty awesome. If only you could have a remote to switch angles and stuff with.