After many viewers experienced issues with purchasing and streaming ESPN’s pay-per-view broadcast of UFC 313, ESPN+ will replay the event for free, an ESPN spokesperson said Sunday.
ESPN+ exclusively streamed UFC 313 — headlined by the light heavyweight fight between Alex Pereira and Magomed Ankalaev — on Saturday night. But a bevy of complaints from viewers attempting to watch the event emerged on social media, including some complaints that viewers couldn’t pay to access the fight and there were glitches in the stream.
An ESPSN source said the issue did not impact those who had already bought the pay-per-view (PPV) prior to the start of the issue at approximately 10 p.m. ET. Anybody trying to purchase the PPV during the technical outage would not have been charged, the source said. Hence, ESPN is not offering any rebates.
UFC CEO Dana White addressed the streaming issues in a news conference after the event, capped by Ankalaev taking Pereira’s title in a unanimous decision at the Octagon.
“Yeah, there were problems buying (the PPV) on ESPN+,” White said. “I don’t know what happened with their platform tonight, but yeah, there are a lot of pissed-off people.”
UFC did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
ESPN and UFC agreed to a five-year, $1.5 billion deal in 2018 that allows ESPN to air 30 UFC Fight Night events annually, with 10 main cards on ESPN’s television networks and 20 streaming on ESPN+. The two sides eventually added two more years to that deal along with pay-per-view broadcasts.
ESPN isn’t the only one to use that model. Other subscription services, like DAZN, have also moved to PPV broadcasts for combat sports events in recent years.
(Photo: Ian Maule / Getty Images)
