Live streaming apps illegally broadcast Mayweather vs. Pacquiao

LAST week it was announced Mayweather and Pacquiao’s promotional outfits had joined forces with Showtime Networks and HBO to stop piracy of yesterday’s pay-per-view fight.

Despite managing to shut down a number of sites advertising free streams, they soon realised you can’t beat the internet.

With popular streaming sites out of the question, many fight fans quickly learnt the bout was being illegally broadcast on live streaming apps Periscope and Meerkat.

What made those sites more attractive to fans was that US pay-per-view broadcasters Time Warner Cable, Comcast, DirecTV and Charter all suffered outages before the bout, meaning potential paying customers were forced to illegally stream the fight.

Even though the smartphone and tablet footage was pixilated and shaky, it was sufficient for the hundreds of thousands of fight fans who tuned into the illegal feeds.

While Meerkat’s streams disappeared when the recording finished, Periscope’s streams are accessible for 24 hours after the event, giving people the option to watch the fight in their own time.

Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo took to the social media platform after the fight declaring the Twitter acquired Periscope app as the real winner.

This isn’t the first time Periscope has been on HBO’s radar, with the live-streaming app being issued take-down notices last month after becoming a source for people to illegally view Game of Thrones.

Ironically, HBO had used Periscope earlier in the evening to stream from inside Manny Pacquiao’s dressing room.