Twitter’s live-streaming app periscope is attracting much attention from broadcasters as its users have taken to ‘live streaming’ premium TV events, most recently the boxing heavyweight title fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas.
And the winner is… @periscopeco
— dick costolo (@dickc) May 3, 2015
Many thousands of people watched thebout this weekend via Periscope, ducking a pay-per-view fee of as much as $100- presenting a new worry for right worrisome moment for rights holders.
Using Periscope requires nothing more than holding up a smartphone to a screen and streaming a live event to countless others in real time.
The picture is secondhand, and certainly not as clear as that on a 50-inch HD screen, but that is a small sacrifice to get the so-called fight of the century for nothing.
A tweet from one such viewer summed up the appeal: “Arena seats at the MGM? $32K. Paying for PPV? $100. Streaming via #Periscope? Priceless, literally.”
Amazing. My @AppMeerkat & @periscopeco streams are full of people live streaming #MayPac
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) May 3, 2015
TV networks HBO and Showtime charged the public a record $89.95 (£59.50) to watch the fight in standard definition and an additional $10 in high definition.
Unlike other live streaming services – including YouTube and UStream – Periscope does not provide tools to let content owners force the removal of copyright-infringing content in near-real time.
Instead, it requires that they file individual takedown requests, which take longer to process.
Twitter’s chief executive, Dick Costolo, was criticised by some users of his social network after he tweeted: “And the winner is… @periscopeco” on the night of the Las Vegas fight.