Periscope #MayPac pic.twitter.com/cIjarxgrbR
— Anthony Quintano (@AnthonyQuintano) May 3, 2015
The Mayweather-Pacquiao bout, for most people, was nothing short of a huge letdown—but at least a lot of us found ways to avoid paying for it.
In New York plenty of generous people put their TVs at their windows or projected the broadcast onto buildings. For most people who didn't want to fork over the $100—like this writer—they turned to online pirated streams that weren't exactly the most reliable or high quality. A lot of viewers turned towards a more creative, intrepid workaround: Periscope.
The live-feed Twitter app found an enormous audience on Saturday night as who-knows-how-many tuned in to feeds of people holding their phones up to their TV showing the match. Amusingly, one particularly popular feed was so inundated with users that their appreciative hearts (akin to a Facebook 'Like') got in the way of the stream:
Periscope right now #MayPac pic.twitter.com/ZZg9B5FyHk
— Anthony Quintano (@AnthonyQuintano) May 3, 2015
Amazingly, some people who dropped thousands to get great seats to the fight even Periscoped from within MGM Grand Garden Arena:
You guys Periscope-ing the fight are hilarious. pic.twitter.com/7PjVrgyLei
— Stephon Johnson (@StephonJohnson8) May 3, 2015
Twitter CEO Dick Costolo was loving the attention for Twitter's latest acquisition.
And the winner is... @periscopeco
— dick costolo (@dickc) May 3, 2015
HBO, who partnered with their competitor Showtime for match broadcast, is no stranger to the perils of Periscope piracy. Just a few weeks ago they sent takedown notices to Periscope, after users used it stream Game Of Thrones.
"In general, we feel developers should have tools which proactively prevent mass copyright infringement from occurring on their apps and not be solely reliant upon notifications," said HBO in a statement. Despite the piracy of the fight's broadcast, HBO, Showtime, and the fighters will likely still have made a killing.
The movie industry says it's not terribly afraid of Periscope—who would rather watch a low-quality stream of The Avengers: Age Of Ultron on their computer than in the theater? But in the case of Mayweather-Pacquiao, last night, some people estimate it hurt The Avengers' box office numbers by about $9 million.