Disappointed Pay-Per-View Customer Sues Showtime

'Grainy video, error screens, buffer events, and stalls'
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 29, 2017 2:44 PM CDT
Showtime Sued for Bad Stream of Mayweather-McGregor Fight
Floyd Mayweather Jr., right, fights Conor McGregor in a super welterweight boxing match Saturday, Aug. 26, 2017, in Las Vegas.   (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken)

Saturday's boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor is projected to have brought in $700 million in pay-per-view orders as one of the biggest PPV events in history, Deadline reports. It's also netted Showtime a class-action lawsuit. Oregon resident Zack Bartel filed the lawsuit following the fight. He says he paid $99.99 to stream the match on Showtime's pay-per-view app and be a "witness to history." Instead, he got "grainy video, error screens, buffer events, and stalls." According to the Hollywood Reporter, Bartel's lawsuit is seeking at least $200 for every Oregon resident who paid $99.99 to stream the fight after seeing Showtime's app advertised on iTunes but who suffered through poor-quality and unwatchable video.

The lawsuit states Showtime "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." Bartel is suing Showtime for unjust enrichment and unlawful trade practices. In a statement, Showtime says it's received "a very limited number of complaints" and will be offering a full refund to anyone who paid to stream the fight through its app but was unable to do so, USA Today reports. "The goal is to deliver at the highest quality all of the content," Showtime states. (More Showtime stories.)

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