MooseNugget
TeamMoose
Posts : 23406
Join date : 2013-07-23
Age : 32
Location : Kotzebue, AK
 |  Subject: UStream giving up on IPPV? Fri Jul 04, 2014 7:29 am | |
| On MLW radio Court Bauer said he was told by someone that UStream is planning on getting out of the iPPV business. This would have a big impact on ROH and NJPW. |
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| | Subject: Re: UStream giving up on IPPV? Fri Jul 04, 2014 1:50 pm | |
| - ROH may be losing Ustream as an iPPV provider. The Wrestling Observer reports that Ustream does not list tonight's New Japan show as an available iPPV, which had been previously listed as such.
ROH had reportedly learned that Ustream was considering dropping iPPVs, although no one knew how soon the decision would be made until today. ROH will likely go with another company but this is a blow, as Ustream has been flawless so far and of course their problems with iPPV providers is well-detailed. This situation would also affect New Japan and Dragon Gate, both of which have shows coming up which were set for Ustream. DG still has their July 20th show listed on the Ustream channel.
Part of the issue apparently has to do with the customer service aspect; there were several people who would watch part of the shows, log off and then come back to watch, which would cause issues including the potential of having to re-order the show. Ustream didn't have the customer service staffing on hand to answer those questions.
Read more at http://www.411mania.com/wrestling/news/327799/ROH,-NJPW,-Dragon-Gate-Possibly-Losing-iPPV-Provider.htm#l3CzghyCRoI6AySU.99
All because their customer service is shitty? What a crock of shit |
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MooseNugget
TeamMoose
Posts : 23406
Join date : 2013-07-23
Age : 32
Location : Kotzebue, AK
| | Subject: Re: UStream giving up on IPPV? Thu Jul 10, 2014 9:32 am | |
| - Dave Meltzer wrote:
- Ustream, the company which handles the iPPV business of New Japan, Ring of Honor and Dragon Gate, and formerly handled the business for Invicta, has informed the promotions that it is getting out of the PPV business.
Exactly when this goes down is not certain, but at press time, they were still advertising carrying Dragon Gate’s 7/20 Kobe Pro Wrestling festival show. At this point, there are no new listing for New Japan. Ustream carried the 6/29 show at Korakuen Hall, but didn’t carry the 7/4 show with the Kota Ibushi vs. Kushida IWGP jr. heavyweight title change. They had not made an announcement regarding the G-1 Climax series, but on the 6/21 show in Osaka, they talked about iPPVs on 6/29 and 7/4, and pushed the opening day of G-1 from Sapporo on 7/21 with a loaded lineup. The 7/4 show did not air as an iPPV and the New Japan site at press time lists no new cards.
The impression we were given is there would be no further ROH shows on Ustream. ROH had nothing but problems doing iPPVs, and had pulled out of doing them because of one misfire after another. The company was leery, but were convinced to go with Ustream for 5/10 in Toronto and 5/17 in New York, because Ustream had been regularly delivering shows from Japan with no problems.
Sources at ROH were very disappointed because the success of the last three shows seemed to rebuild iPPV at nearly record levels, and the shows came across with no serious technical issues. The 6/22 show actually beat the New York show on iPPV, even though it was available on regular PPV. That was said to be a big surprise, since it was a less impressive lineup and the belief was iPPV buys would be minimal with the show on PPV. The best explanation is that consumer confidence gained from putting on two successful broadcasts and two such entertaining shows. Their May numbers probably weren’t what they could have been given the lineup because a lot of the fans burned by all the problems may not have ordered.
We’re told the various companies were informed by Ustream of this a few weeks ago, and it was considered a major disappointment for both ROH and New Japan. For New Japan, it’s not that bad from their standpoint financially since they may do anywhere from a few hundred to around 1,500 orders (for the Tokyo Dome show) outside of Japan, so it’s not a big business for them. But it has garnered them a regular hardcore fan base outside of Japan. But for those fans, which as it turn out, are in high numbers readers of this publication, it’s a huge issue. While a lot of the smaller shows surface on the Internet pretty quickly, the major PPVs can take some time to do so. Also, it’s far more convenient to know ahead of time what will be on and when, and unless they can get a new carrier, it would be the end for seeing major shows live. While the time zone difference makes that hard in the U.S., it’s not as bad in Europe and some of the bigger shows that have afternoon starts can be viewed late night live on he West Coast.
The vast majority of New Japan’s iPPV business, probably along the lines of 95 to 98 percent, which is by far the most successful of any company ever, is through their Japanese carrier.
The story that we’ve heard is that Ustream was only getting 10 to 15 percent of the revenue, far less than the 50/50 split that is common in the genre. But iPPV was never a major part of their business plan, just something they started doing.
They greatly over achieved their projections and were faced with the choice to spend more on resources for servers and customer support. The latter has been a problem during live shows. The shows themselves don’t have lagging and buffering to nearly the degree most iPPVs end up having, which is probably a combination of both Ustream being the gold standard in this industry and New Japan’s in-arena production. But there are issues at times with being able to see the show after ordering. It is not unusual to order the show watch it, but if you click off and try to go back, there are problems getting back on. It’s not that unusual for people, if they don’t watch it straight through, having to order a second time and ask for a refund later because of the lack of customer support. Last year, when we were at the Observer/Figure Four party, we were going to watch a New Japan show from that week, and there were technical issues after ordering that not only wouldn’t allow the show to play, but because it had been ordered, wouldn’t even allow you to order it a second time.
And while Ustream’s reputation for New Japan shows was good, and they had no issues with ROH, there were problems with iPPVs when working with Invicta in the past, and last year’s TripleMania completely misfired and ended up instead being offered for free. AAA is going with a different carrier this year.
The reports were that Ustream didn’t like dealing with customer service on iPPV problems. Ustream did not respond to any questions regarding their future plans with iPPV. |
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Guest
Guest
| | Subject: Re: UStream giving up on IPPV? Thu Jul 10, 2014 1:56 pm | |
| "The reports were that Ustream didn’t like dealing with customer service on iPPV problems."
So pretty much your customer service is garbage and you dont wanna do it anymore? Major league copout |
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