Yahoo Finance ESPN+ outage wreaks havoc with UFC 257 pay-per-view
The UFC 257 main card, headlined by Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier, kicked off on ESPN+ Pay-Per-View with Marina Rodriguez’s stunning TKO of Amanda Ribas.
Unfortunately, not every fan who shelled out for the $70 pay-per-view was able to see it.
[UFC 257 on ESPN+: Buy Conor McGregor fight here]
It’s unclear how widespread the outage was, but a noticeable number of MMA fans were complaining on Saturday that ESPN+ was not working for them. That included many of the UFC’s own fighters, as well as a former NFL Defensive Player of the Year and MLB Cy Young Award winner:
Half the UFC's own roster can't get the ESPN+ app working to watch #UFC257 pic.twitter.com/TbYiQjxVXo
— MMA mania (@mmamania) January 24, 2021
I would like my $70 back#UFC257
— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) January 24, 2021
Still holding out hope that this ESPN+ app might actually work and I might actually get to watch the fights that I paid for. What a let down tonight has been so far. #ufc257 @espn @ufc
— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) January 24, 2021
ESPN released a statement confirming it is “aware” of the issue and working to resolve it, per Adam Hill of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
ESPN is "aware of issue impacting some users and working to resolve," according to a statement #UFC257
— Adam Hill (@AdamHillLVRJ) January 24, 2021
Yahoo Sports’ Kevin Iole was told that the outage occurred as 1.3 million viewers attempted to tune in at the same time. The outage appeared to affect ESPN+ across the board, not just the UFC 257 pay-per-view, and was not limited to just one app or device. The problem was observed on multiple devices by Yahoo Sports.
The situation occurred days after UFC president Dana White complained of illegal streams of UFC events and threatened streamers with consequences from federal authorities if they streamed Saturday’s event. One of the White’s fighters eventually decided the risk was worth it:
Okay I am done send me a illegal streams!
— Ian Heinisch (@ianheinischmma) January 24, 2021
More UFC 257 coverage from Yahoo Sports:
