Showtime Sued Over Failed Mayweather-McGregor Streams
Showtime faces a class-action lawsuit over Saturday's Floyd Mayweather–Conor McGregor fight, with customers complaining that streaming issues during the main event and the other pay-per-view bouts prevented them from getting a clear view of the telecast.
Portland, Ore. resident Zack Bartel says in a lawsuit, which was filed Saturday in federal court, that he had paid to stream the fight in high-definition via Showtime app, but instead got "grainy video, error screens, buffer events, and stalls."
Bartel is suing Showtime for unlawful trade practices and unjust enrichment, saying that the network rushed the streaming service to the masses and did so without securing the bandwidth it needed to sufficiently stream the fight.
"Instead of being upfront with consumers about its new, untested, underpowered service, defendant caused likelihood of confusion and misunderstanding as to the source and quality of the HD video consumers would see on fight night," writes attorney Michael Fuller in the complaint. "Defendant intentionally misrepresented the quality and grade of video consumers would see using its app, and knowingly failed to disclose that its system was defective with respect to the amount of bandwidth available, and that defendant’s service would materially fail to conform to the quality of HD video defendant promised."
Mayweather beat McGregor by a 10th–round technical knockout, and retired with a 50–0 record.
