Technical glitches leading up to and during Friday’s $9 million match between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson resulted in Turner Media’s Bleacher Report streaming the $19.99 pay-per-view event for free, ruffling the feathers of many who already handed out the fee.
Cable provider Comcast announced on Friday night that it would be refunding its customers who shelled out the money of the event a $19.99 credit, and they encouraged Turner, the rights holder of the event, to do the same.
“Comcast will proactively issue a $19.99 credit to any Xfinity TV customer who purchased ‘The Match’ pay-per-view event,” the statement read. “We hope Turner and Bleacher Report will do the same given that the event was made available by them for free on The Bleacher Report website.”
Remarkably, no carrier is going to see any money from the Tiger-Phil PPV event. Now refunding or crediting: Cox, Charter/Spectrum, AT&T U-Verse, DirecTV, Bleacher Report and Dish/Sling.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) November 25, 2018
Providers Charter Spectrum, Cox Communications, Dish/Sling TV and AT&T (via its DirecTV and U-Verse platforms) also said they would issue their users some sort of refund as well.
The obvious issue at stake here is the backend revenue that would be made from having the event on pay-per-view. According to ESPN.com’s Darren Rovell, Turner Media announced on Saturday night that they will be taking that big hit, offering full refunds or credit to anyone who paid for The Match.
“The Match was an historic event, from Tiger’s opening tee shot to Phil’s final putt,” Turner said in a statement. “Prior to the start of the event, we experienced a technical issue with the B/R Live paywall page that we tried to quickly resolve.
Turner vows to give back all the money to those who paid for Tiger-Phil https://t.co/R0HmSktwr2
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) November 25, 2018
“We decided to take down the paywall to ensure that fans who already purchased the event would not miss any action. This did not impact the live streaming of the competition and fans were treated to an event that was both engaging and memorable. Unfortunately, the prematch technical issue did occur, and we will offer fans who purchased the event on B/R Live a refund.”
