Grainy video, errors and buffering streams weren't what fans paid $99 to see, according to the lawsuit.
Before the sweat was dry in the ring following Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s defeat of UFC champion Conor McGregor on Saturday, Showtime had another major fight on its hands — a class-action lawsuit from customers unhappy because offstreaming issues that plagued the fight and the lead-up bouts.
Portland, Ore., boxing fan Zack Bartel paid to stream the fight in high-definition through the Showtime app but says all he saw was "grainy video, error screens, buffer events, and stalls."
Bartel is suing Showtime for unlawful trade practices and unjust enrichment, alleging the network rushed its pay-per-view streaming service to the market without securing the bandwidth necessary to support the scores of cable-cutting fans.
"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 filed late Saturday in Oregon federal court. "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."....
Source/more, including the entire 18-page complaint: Showtime Hit With Class-Action Lawsuit Over Failed Mayweather-McGregor Streams
