Misplaced Pages

#309690

123-601: SonyLIV is an Indian subscription video-on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Culver Max Entertainment . SonyLIV was introduced in 2013 as the first OTT service in India . As a streaming service, it provides live sports , original titles , other content titles from its own networks and content titles in India licensed from third-parties such as Lionsgate and ITV among others. The SonyLIV content library includes films , TV shows and series , and sports. SonyLIV

246-501: A DEC Alpha –based computer for its VOD servers, allowing it to support more than a million users. By 1994 the Oracle scalable VOD system used massively parallel processors to support from 500 to 30,000 users. The SGI system supported 4,000 users. The servers connected to networks of increasing size to eventually support video stream delivery to entire cities. In the UK, from September 1994,

369-563: A subscription model that requires users to pay a monthly fee for access to a selection of movies, television shows, and original series. In contrast, YouTube , another Internet-based VOD system, uses an advertising-funded model in which users can access most of its video content free of charge but must pay a subscription fee for premium content. Some airlines offer VOD services as in-flight entertainment to passengers through video screens embedded in seats or externally provided portable media players. Downloading and streaming VOD systems provide

492-575: A subscription business model in which subscribers are charged a regular fee to access unlimited programs. Examples of these services include Netflix , Hulu , Amazon Prime Video , Max , Disney+ , Peacock , Paramount+ , Apple TV+ , Disney+ Hotstar , iQIYI , Star+ , Hayu , BET+ , Discovery+ , Crunchyroll , SonyLIV , ZEE5 , and GulliMax . Near video on demand (NVOD) is a pay-per-view consumer video technique used by multi-channel broadcasters using high-bandwidth distribution mechanisms such as satellite and cable television. Multiple copies of

615-531: A 20-year deal to stream movies on demand over Enron's fiber-optic network. The heavily promoted deal failed, with Enron's share prices dropping following the announcement. In 1998, Kingston Communications became the first UK company to launch a fully commercial VOD service and the first to integrate broadcast television and Internet access through a single set-top box using IP delivery over ADSL. By 2001, Kingston Interactive TV had attracted 15,000 subscribers. After several trials, Home Choice followed in 1999 but

738-648: A VOD service formed a major part of the Cambridge Digital Interactive Television Trial. This provided video and data to 250 homes and several schools connected to the Cambridge Cable network, later part of NTL, now Virgin Media . The MPEG-1 encoded video was streamed over an ATM network from an ICL media server to set-top boxes designed by Acorn Online Media. The trial commenced at a speed of 2 Mbit/s to

861-479: A continuing series of fighting tournaments—a franchise, rather than a one-night stand." With no weight classes, fighters often faced significantly larger or taller opponents. Keith "The Giant Killer" Hackney faced Emmanuel Yarbrough at UFC 3 with a 9-inch height and 400 pounds (180 kg) weight disadvantage. During this early phase of the organization, the UFC showcased a bevy of styles and fighters. Aside from

984-498: A copper telephone cable to provide a VOD service of acceptable quality as the required bandwidth of a digital television signal is around 200   Mbps , which is 2,000 times greater than the bandwidth of a speech signal over a copper telephone wire. VOD services were only made possible as a result of two major technological developments: MPEG ( motion-compensated DCT ) video compression and asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) data transmission. Plans such as those of

1107-595: A deal to buy UFC's DVD rights from Lionsgate for an additional two million dollars. With ties to the Nevada State Athletic Commission (Lorenzo Fertitta was a former member of the NSAC), Zuffa secured sanctioning in Nevada in 2001. Shortly thereafter, the UFC returned to pay-per-view cable television, with UFC 33 featuring three championship bouts. The UFC slowly rose in popularity after

1230-582: A device such as a computer, digital video recorder (DVR) or, a portable media player for continued viewing. The majority of cable and telephone company –based television providers offer VOD streaming, whereby a user selects a video programme that begins to play immediately (i.e., streaming), or downloading to a DVR rented or purchased from the provider, or to a PC or to a portable device for deferred viewing. Streaming media has emerged as an increasingly popular medium of VOD provision over downloading, including BitTorrent . Desktop client applications such as

1353-552: A few months. PVOD made a return during the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting global closures of cinemas . Certain films that had already been released including The Invisible Man were quickly also released on VOD platforms for a higher rental price than usual, while other films including Trolls World Tour were released simultaneously on PVOD and in drive-in theaters , or in some cases directly to PVOD only. In most cases, these PVOD releases are offered through most of

SECTION 10

#1732802189310

1476-462: A financial disaster. Zuffa bought select assets from WFA, including select fighter contracts, as well as trademarks and other intellectual property. The sport's popularity was also noticed by the sports betting community as BodogLife.com, an online gambling site, stated in July 2007 that in 2007 UFC would surpass boxing for the first time in terms of betting revenues. In fact, the UFC had already broken

1599-455: A form of professional wrestling which had more realistic-looking moves and matches while deemphasizing theatrical elements. Promotions like Shooto and Pancrase discarded the scripts and were already putting on hybrid fighting shows with real fights by the time the UFC was founded. This culminated in the creation of Pride Fighting Championships in 1997. At its height, Pride was the world's most popular MMA promotion, and helped to popularize

1722-456: A legal peer-to-peer approach based on Kontiki technology to provide very-high-capacity multi-point downloads of the video content. Instead of the video content all being downloaded from Sky's servers, the content comes from multiple users of the system who have already downloaded the content. Other UK television broadcasters implemented their own versions of the same technology, such as Channel 4 's 4oD (4 on Demand, now known as All 4 ) which

1845-473: A low-latency content delivery network, and Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS) as a highly available message queuing service. In June 2020, Sony LIV underwent a revamp for the second time, and this time they started to stream content from Sony Pictures Entertainment , Sony Pictures Television Studios , ITV and Reliance Entertainment . Also, SonyLIV started to stream its own original movies and series. Since 2020, SonyLIV has taken more of an active role as

1968-469: A million years did these guys think they were creating a sport." Davie, in his 2014 book Is This Legal? , an account of the creation of the first UFC event, disputes the perception that the UFC was seen by WOW Promotions and SEG as a one-off, since SEG offered a five-year joint development deal to WOW. He says, "Clearly, both Campbell and Meyrowitz shared my unwavering belief that War of the Worlds would be

2091-606: A monthly basis. On 20 December 2019, Bengaluru -based security researcher Ehraz Ahmed discovered a security flaw in the Sony LIV app, that allowed to fetch sensitive user information such as profile picture, email address, date of birth, name and phone number of its registered users. Video on demand#Subscription models Television VOD systems can stream content, either through a traditional set-top box or through remote devices such as computers, tablets, and smartphones. VOD users may also permanently download content to

2214-790: A piece of content once purchased via the Internet; and download to rent (DTR), by which customers can access the content for a limited time upon renting. Examples of TVOD services include the Apple iTunes Store and the Google Play Store, as well as VOD rental services offered through multichannel television (i.e., cable or satellite) providers. Premium video on demand (PVOD) is a version of TVOD which allows customers to access video-on-demand content several weeks or months earlier than their customary TVOD or home video availability – often feature films made available alongside, or in place of,

2337-508: A practice with roots in Japan's Pride Fighting Championships . Long time UFC referee John McCarthy said that he felt UFC 40 was the turning point in whether or not the sport of MMA would survive in America. "When that show (UFC 40) happened, I honestly felt like it was going to make it. Throughout the years, things were happening, and everything always looked bleak. It always looked like, this

2460-695: A producer and distributor for both films and series , offering original programming content through its online library. SonyLIV was launched as a streaming service in the United States on Sling TV , streaming all the shows available in India on the app. On 15 January 2021, WWE Network was launched in India through Sony LIV. Sony LIV was launched in Canada on 14 October 2021. It was launched in Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore on 25 February 2021. On 12 June 2021, as part of Europe Phase-1, Sony LIV

2583-415: A programme are broadcast at short time intervals (typically staggered on a schedule of every 10–20 minutes) on linear channels providing convenience for viewers, who can watch the programme without needing to tune in at the only scheduled point in time. A viewer may only have to wait a few minutes before the next time a movie will be programmed. This form is bandwidth-intensive, reduces the number of channels

SECTION 20

#1732802189310

2706-638: A provider can offer, and is generally provided by large operators with a great deal of redundant capacity. This concept has been reduced in popularity as video on demand is implemented, along with providers often wanting to provide the maximum throughput for their broadband services possible. Only the satellite services DirecTV and Dish Network continue to provide NVOD services, as they do not offer broadband and much of their rural customer base only has access to slower dial-up and non- 5G wireless and satellite internet options which cannot stream films or have onerous data caps (and where possible, AT&T

2829-481: A reality television show featuring up-and-coming MMA fighters in competition for a six-figure UFC contract, with fighters eliminated from competition via exhibition mixed martial arts matches. It was pitched to several networks, each one rejecting the idea outright. Not until they approached Spike TV , with an offer to pay the $ 10 million production costs themselves, did they find an outlet. In January 2005, Spike TV launched The Ultimate Fighter 1 ( TUF 1 ) in

2952-525: A series of fight events debuting in August 2005, and Countdown specials to promote upcoming UFC pay-per-view cards. After a very successful run on Spike and with the upcoming announcement of the UFC's new relationship with Fox , Spike officials made a statement regarding the end of their partnership with the UFC, " The Ultimate Fighter season 14 in September will be our last... Our 6-year partnership with

3075-414: A set-top box with a one-terabyte hard drive that could be used for video-on-demand services previously offered through cable television and broadband. A movie, for example, could be sent out once using a broadcast signal rather than numerous times over cable or fiber-optic lines, and this would not involve the expense of adding many miles of lines. Sezmi planned to lease part of the broadcast spectrum to offer

3198-433: A subscription service that National Association of Broadcasters President Gordon H. Smith said would provide a superior picture to that of cable or satellite at a lower cost. Developing VOD requires extensive negotiations to identify a financial model that would serve both content creators and cable providers while providing desirable content for viewers at an acceptable price point. Key factors identified for determining

3321-865: A subscription to the Disney+ streaming service, but they then retain access as long as they maintain their subscription (for Mulan , this was effectively a 90-day rental, as the film became available to all Disney+ subscribers at no extra charge in December). It has been reported that the pandemic had contributed to a transformation in movie distribution in favor of PVOD over traditional movie houses, as studios were able to realize 80% of revenue through PVOD versus 50% of traditional theater box office receipts. Theater owners including AMC and Cinemark, as well as suppliers including IMAX and National CineMedia, all experienced significant drops in revenues during shutdowns related to COVID-19. Subscription VOD ( SVOD ) services use

3444-475: A system of digital video recorders to simulate the video-on-demand experience. Most of Edge Spectrum's channels, where they are on air, carry televangelism . Push video on demand is so-named because the provider "pushes" the content out to the viewer's set-top box without the viewer having requested the content. This technique is used by several broadcasters on systems that lack the connectivity and bandwidth to provide true "streaming" video on demand. Push VOD

3567-530: A television franchise. In 1993, WOW Promotions sought a television partner and approached pay-per-view producers TVKO ( HBO ) and SET ( Showtime ), and Campbell McLaren and David Isaacs at Semaphore Entertainment Group (SEG). Both TVKO and SET declined, but SEG—a pioneer in pay-per-view television that had produced such offbeat events as a tennis match between Jimmy Connors and Martina Navratilova —became WOW's partner in May 1993. UFC promoters initially pitched

3690-561: A total of 40,000+ hours of television show coverage in Hindi and English. Since its launch, SonyLIV has streamed live sports events. It also features content titles in India licensed from third-parties such as Lionsgate and ITV among others. After Sony Pictures Networks India's acquisition of Ten Sports Network, all TEN Sports live programs became part of its broadcast. Since then, SonyLIV has been streaming WWE Raw , WWE SmackDown and other WWE pay-per-view events , and UFC . SonyLIV

3813-411: A traditional release in movie theaters – but at a much higher price point. A version of the model was tested in 2011 by American satellite TV provider DirecTV under the brand name "Home Premiere", which allowed viewers to rent select films from major studios for US$ 30 per rental as soon as 60 days after they debuted in cinemas, compared to 120 days for the regular TVOD window; this version only lasted

SonyLIV - Misplaced Pages Continue

3936-493: A user to view content. This technology also provides an advantage for technology companies for data analysis of viewed content from consumers. By analyzing data of what is viewed most by consumers, companies can purchase more content that is aimed for an audience, and then in-turn market products that are based on what viewer profiles are of a group of consumers who viewer a specific amount of content. This data analysis will often provide researchers valuable data that includes: what

4059-477: A valuation of $ 1.7 billion. The organization had 578 fighters contracted as of January 2023. With a TV deal and expansion in Australia, Asia, Europe, and new markets within the United States, the UFC has achieved greater mainstream media coverage. It earned US$ 609 million in 2015, and its next domestic media rights agreement with ESPN was valued at $ 1.5 billion over a five-year term. In April 2023, Endeavor Group Holdings announced that UFC would merge with

4182-425: A way to visually differentiate their event from professional boxing and professional wrestling . Some ideas included a traditional roped-ring surrounded by netting, a moat with alligators, a raised platform surrounded by razor-wire fence, electrified fencing, men in togas and netting that could be lowered from the ceiling by a pulley. Eventually Cusson designed an arena with eight sides surrounded by chain-link fence,

4305-491: A week of recording instead of a several-month delay, and elimination fights are aired live. With increased visibility, the UFC's pay-per-view buy numbers exploded. UFC 52 , the first event after the first season of The Ultimate Fighter featuring eventual-UFC Hall of Famer: Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell , avenging his defeat to fellow eventual-Hall of Famer, Randy Couture , drew a pay-per-view audience of 300,000, doubling its previous benchmark of 150,000 set at UFC 40. Following

4428-682: A wrestler beat a boxer?" As with most martial arts at the time, fighters typically had skills in just one discipline and little experience against opponents with differing skills. The television broadcast featured kickboxer Kevin Rosier , taekwondo practitioner Patrick Smith , savate fighter Gerard Gordeau , karate expert Zane Frazier , shootfighter Ken Shamrock , sumo wrestler Teila Tuli , boxer Art Jimmerson , and 175 lb (79 kg) Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Royce Gracie —younger brother of UFC co-founder Rorion, whom Rorion selected to represent his family. Royce's submission skills proved

4551-694: Is a cable VOD service that also offers pay-per-view. Once the programs have been downloaded onto a user's PVR, he or she can watch, play, pause, and seek at their convenience. VOD is also common in expensive hotels. According to the European Audiovisual Observatory , 142 paying VOD services were operational in Europe at the end of 2006. The number increased to 650 by 2009. At the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada , Sezmi CEO Buno Pati and president Phil Wiser showed

4674-603: Is a device that is Internet capable. Cable media companies have combined VOD with live streaming services. The early-2020s launches of apps from cable companies (e.g., NBC 's Peacock , CBS 's Paramount+ ) are attempts to compete with Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) services because they lack live news and sports content. Streaming video servers can serve a wide community via a WAN , but responsiveness may be reduced. Download VOD services are practical in homes equipped with cable modems or DSL connections. Servers for traditional cable and telco VOD services are usually placed at

4797-533: Is also available in the United States via Sling TV and as a standalone app. Despite making it international. As of August 2023, multiple subscription options are available based on screen size, devices, stream quality and duration. Apart from full featured 'LIV Premium'; a 'mobile only' subscription option is available. List of Sony LIV supported devices and platforms includes the following: As of August 2015, SonyLIV had reached about 25 million views on

4920-435: Is also used by broadcasters that want to optimize their video streaming infrastructures by pre-loading the most popular contents to the consumers' set-top device. If the consumer requests one of these films, it is already loaded on her or his DVR. A push VOD system uses a personal video recorder (PVR) to store a selection of content, often transmitted in spare capacity overnight or all day long at low bandwidth. Users can watch

5043-458: Is an accepted version of this page The Ultimate Fighting Championship ( UFC ) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas , Nevada. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings , a majority owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings . It is the largest MMA promotion in the world as of 2023. It produces events worldwide that showcase 11 weight divisions (eight men's and three women's) and abides by

SonyLIV - Misplaced Pages Continue

5166-671: Is available based on location, subscription, and device hardware & software. Sony LIV is available in Afghanistan , Australia , Austria , Bahrain , Bangladesh , Belgium , Bhutan , Canada , China , Denmark , Finland , France , Germany , Greece , Hong Kong , India , Indonesia , Ireland , Italy , Kuwait , Macau , Malaysia , Maldives , Netherlands , Nepal , New Zealand , Norway , Oman , Philippines , Poland , Portugal , Qatar , Saudi Arabia , Singapore , Spain , Sri Lanka , Sweden , Switzerland , Taiwan , Thailand , United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom . It

5289-451: Is available in the app. This includes games such as QOTY (Qizzer of the Year) and KBC Play Along. The KBC Play Along is the most popular game in Sony LIV . Up to 5 user profiles are available each with its own watchlist, play progress and watch history. Optional common PIN protection can be set for 'Adults' profiles. 'Kids' profile can be set without an option of setting any PIN. Sony LIV

5412-608: Is it, this is going to be the last time. This is going to be the last year. But, when I was standing in the Octagon at UFC 40, I remember standing there before the Ortiz/Shamrock fight and looking around. The energy of that fight, it was phenomenal, and it was the first time I honestly said, it's going to make it." –"Big" John McCarthy Despite the success of UFC 40, the UFC was still experiencing financial deficits. By 2004, Zuffa had $ 34 million in losses since they purchased

5535-583: Is now prioritizing their streaming service AT&T TV , which utilizes a fully immediate VOD experience, over DirecTV ). Before the rise of VOD, the cable pay-per-view provider In Demand provided up to 40 channels in 2002, with several films receiving four channels on a staggered schedule to provide the NVOD experience for viewers. As of 2018, most cable pay-per-view channels now number mainly 3–5, and are used mainly for live ring sports events (boxing and professional wrestling), comedy specials, and concerts, though

5658-514: Is streaming since 2017. Sony LIV underwent a revamp in its appearance in June 2020. Since then, Sony LIV provides their original shows in 5–7 languages. Other than Hindi, Sony LIV releases originals in the other languages after 1–2 weeks from the release date. Rocket Boys , Scam 1992 , Maharani , Avrodh: The Siege Within , Chutzpah , Undekhi , and Tanaav are some of the popular Sony LIV original shows. Sony LIV features content in

5781-474: Is the first Indian OTT media service platform to produce music content for a Hollywood feature film – producing music for the Hindi version of the blockbuster titled Passengers , starring Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence . The singers for the original soundtrack titled Aadat included Jubin Nautiyal , Shirley Setia and Raftaar . Since then SonyLIV has produced more than 100 songs which are now available on

5904-714: The Digital Cinema Initiative , in 2002. The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 planned to launch a joint platform provisionally called Kangaroo in 2008. This was abandoned in 2009 following complaints, which were investigated by the Competition Commission . In that same year, the assets of the now-defunct Kangaroo project were acquired by Arqiva , who used the technology to launch the SeeSaw service in February 2010. A year later, however, SeeSaw

6027-510: The Laservision media format and featured a jukebox -like media handling system involving players served by disc carousels, with twelve such handler units capable of serving up to 6,000 customers. Other early VOD systems used tapes as the real-time source of video streams. GTE started as a trial in 1990, with AT&T providing all components. By 1992, VOD servers were supplying previously encoded digital video from disks and DRAM . In

6150-488: The MGM Grand Garden Arena , the UFC secured its first television deal with Fox Sports Net . The Best Damn Sports Show Period aired the first mixed martial arts match on American cable television in June 2002, as well as the main event showcasing Chuck Liddell vs. Vitor Belfort at UFC 37.5 . Later, FSN would air highlight shows from the UFC. UFC 40 proved to be the most critical event to date in

6273-565: The National Basketball Association . Beginning with the 2022 US Open , Sony Pictures Networks India will have the exclusive live television and digital rights to the US Open in India through 2024. As of August 2023, US Open would livestream on SonyLIV. Sony LIV has streamed a number of original streaming television series. The first-ever original was a Gujarati web series titled Kacho Papad Pako Papad and it

SECTION 50

#1732802189310

6396-496: The Roku Channel, Samsung TV Plus , Amazon Freevee , Popcornflix , Crackle , Tubi , Movies Anywhere , Vudu , Dailymotion , and YouTube . Walmart is adding ASVOD original programming to Vudu, and YouTube Originals will be ASVOD by 2020. Data analysis When technology companies, include SVOD apps on their devices, like phones, tablets, televisions, game systems, computers, this can remove an attitude obstruction for

6519-558: The Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts . As of 2024 , it had held over 700 events . Dana White has been its president since 2001 and CEO since 2023. Under White's stewardship, it has grown into a global multi-billion-dollar enterprise. The UFC was founded by businessman Art Davie and Brazilian martial artist Rorion Gracie , and the first event was held in 1993 at McNichols Sports Arena in Denver , Colorado. The purpose of

6642-401: The Apple iTunes online content store and Smart TV apps such as Amazon Prime Video allow temporary rentals and purchases of video entertainment content. Other Internet-based VOD systems provide users with access to bundles of video entertainment content rather than individual movies and shows. The most common of these systems, Netflix , Hulu , Disney+ , Peacock , Max and Paramount+ , use

6765-574: The Integrated Network System, a national high-capacity fibre-optic network supporting a range of broadband services in Japan, noted in a more general 1986 publication, were interpreted as conducive to eventual VOD deployment. However, early VOD trials employed existing cable television infrastructure, notably British Telecom's video library trial, operated through the Westminster Cable Company. This trial used

6888-791: The International Fighting Championships (IFC) secured the first U.S. sanctioned mixed martial arts event, which occurred in New Jersey on September 30, 2000. Just two months later, the UFC held its first sanctioned event, UFC 28 , under the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board 's "Unified Rules". After the long battle to secure sanctioning, SEG stood on the brink of bankruptcy, when Station Casinos executives Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta and their business partner Dana White approached them in 2000, with an offer to purchase

7011-416: The UFC brand. On October 4, 2007, Pride Worldwide closed its Japanese office, laying off 20 people who were working there since the closing of its parent company Dream Stage Entertainment (DSE). On June 18, 2008, Lorenzo Fertitta accommodated the UFC's growth by announcing his resignation from Station Casinos in order to devote his energies to the international business development of Zuffa, particularly

7134-507: The UFC continued to work with state athletic commissions. Blatnick, McCarthy, and matchmaker Joe Silva created a manual of policies, procedures, codes of conduct, and rules to help in getting the UFC sanctioned by the athletic commissions, many of which exist to this day. Blatnick and McCarthy traveled around the country, educating regulators and changing perceptions about a sport that was thought to be bloodthirsty and inhumane. By April 2000, their movement had clearly made an impact. California

7257-453: The UFC had its first event outside continental United States with UFC 8 in Bayamón, Puerto Rico , and in 1997, UFC Japan: Ultimate Japan was its first foreign event. The violent nature of the burgeoning sport quickly drew the attention of U.S. authorities. In 1996, U.S. Senator John McCain saw a tape of the first UFC events and immediately found it abhorrent. He led a campaign to ban

7380-530: The UFC has been incredibly beneficial in building both our brands, and we wish them all the best in the future." With the announcement of UFC's partnership with Fox in August 2011, The Ultimate Fighter , which entered its 14th season in that September, moved to the FX network to air on Friday nights starting with season 15 in the Spring of 2012. Along with the network change, episodes are now edited and broadcast within

7503-432: The UFC's early competitions was to identify the most effective martial art in a contest with minimal rules and no weight classes between competitors of different fighting disciplines. In subsequent events, more rigorous rules were created and fighters began adopting effective techniques from more than one discipline, which indirectly helped create a separate style of fighting known as present-day mixed martial arts. The UFC

SECTION 60

#1732802189310

7626-520: The UFC's media profile in an attempt to legalize mixed martial arts in jurisdictions inside and outside the United States that had yet to sanction the sport. In December 2006, Zuffa acquired the northern California-based promotion World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) in order to stop the International Fight League (IFL) from making a deal with Versus (now NBC Sports Network ). At the time, the UFC had an exclusive deal with Spike, so

7749-454: The UFC, calling it "human cockfighting", and sent letters to the governors of all 50 US states asking them to ban it. 36 states enacted laws that banned "no-holds-barred" fighting, including New York, which enacted the ban on the eve of UFC 12 , forcing it to relocate to Dothan, Alabama . The UFC continued to air on DirecTV PPV, though its audience remained minuscule compared to the era's larger cable pay-per-view platforms. In response to

7872-458: The UFC. Faced with the prospect of folding, the UFC stepped outside the bounds of pay-per-view and made a foray into television. After being featured in a reality television series, American Casino , and seeing how well the series worked as a promotion vehicle, the Fertitta brothers developed the idea of UFC creating its own reality series. Their idea, The Ultimate Fighter ( TUF ), was

7995-522: The UFC. A month later, in January 2001, the Fertittas bought the UFC for $ 2 million and created Zuffa, LLC as the parent entity controlling the UFC. "I had my attorneys tell me that I was crazy because I wasn't buying anything. I was paying $ 2 million and they were saying 'What are you getting? ' " Lorenzo Fertitta revealed to Fighters Only magazine, recalling the lack of assets he acquired in

8118-675: The US, the 1982 anti-trust break-up of AT&T resulted in several smaller telephone companies nicknamed Baby Bells . Following this, the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 prohibited telephone companies from providing video services within their operating regions. In 1993, the National Communication and Information Infrastructure (NII) was proposed and passed by the US House and Senate, opening

8241-598: The Zuffa era. The event was a near sellout of 13,022 at the MGM Grand Arena and sold 150,000 pay-per-view buys, a rate roughly double that of the previous Zuffa events. The event featured a card headlined by a championship match between then-current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Tito Ortiz and former UFC Superfight Champion Ken Shamrock, who had previously left to professionally wrestle in WWE before returning to MMA. It

8364-480: The Zuffa purchase, due partly to greater advertising, corporate sponsorship, the return to cable pay-per-view, and subsequent home video and DVD releases. White later said that "Nobody took us seriously, except Donald Trump . Donald was the first to recognize the potential that we saw in the UFC, and encouraged us to build our business". With larger live gates at casino venues like the Trump Taj Mahal and

8487-466: The aforementioned Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock, and Patrick Smith , they also featured competitors such as Hall of Famer Dan Severn , Marco Ruas , Gary Goodridge , Don Frye , Kimo Leopoldo , Oleg Taktarov , and Tank Abbott . In April 1995, following UFC 5 in Charlotte, North Carolina , Davie and Gracie sold their interest in the franchise to SEG and disbanded WOW Promotions. Although UFC used

8610-546: The app, YouTube , JioSaavn and many other online music service platforms worldwide. Varieties of anime originals from Animax were available on SonyLIV to stream. After shutting down a linear TV channel on 18 April 2017, Animax was made available exclusively as a digital streaming channel in India from 7 July 2017 to 7 May 2020. SonyLIV also streamed cricket matches played by Pakistan , Australia , Sri Lanka , South Africa , West Indies and Zimbabwe , and Grand Prix motorcycle racing . Until early 2021, it also streamed

8733-504: The banning of strikes to the back of the neck and head, headbutting, small-joint manipulations, and groin strikes. With five-minute rounds introduced at UFC 21 , the UFC gradually rebranded itself as a sport rather than a spectacle. The implementation of rules changed the game of many fighters, for example Mark Coleman made potent use of headbutts for his ground-and-pound tactics, could not use them effectively anymore. Led by UFC commissioner Jeff Blatnick and referee John McCarthy ,

8856-400: The cable head-end, serving a particular market, and cable hubs in larger markets. In the telco world, they are placed in either the central office or a newly created location called a Video Head-End Office (VHO). VOD services first appeared in the early 1990s. Until then, it was not thought possible that a television programme could be squeezed into the limited telecommunication bandwidth of

8979-674: The champions and top contenders from both organizations, making comparisons to the AFL–NFL merger and the creation of a " Super Bowl " of MMA. However, after purchasing Pride, Dana White felt that the Pride model was not sustainable and that the brand became "toxic" in Japan, being difficult to find a new television deal. The organization instead folded, with many former Pride fighters such as Antônio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira , Maurício "Shogun" Rua , Dan Henderson , Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović , Wanderlei Silva , and others already being realigned under

9102-631: The coaches of The Ultimate Fighter 3 . The organization hit a milestone with UFC 66 , pitting Ortiz in a rematch against Liddell with over 1 million buys. The surge in popularity prompted the UFC to beef up its executive team. In March 2006, the UFC announced that it had hired Marc Ratner , former executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission , as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs. Ratner, once an ally of Senator McCain's campaign against no holds barred fighting, lobbied numerous athletic commissions to help raise

9225-551: The content to other streaming services and, temporarily, make extra income like that too. In a reflection made by 2013 Netflix Chief Content Officer, Ted Sarandos , he was quoted saying, "When we launch in a territory the BitTorrent traffic drops as the Netflix traffic grows." This can be valuably interpreted as in that online piracy numbers drop the more that SVOD companies grow, which in turn means more revenue going back to

9348-638: The contract for the second season was made outside of the venue on a napkin immediately after the finale. On the heels of the Griffin/Bonnar finale, a second season of The Ultimate Fighter launched in August 2005, and two more seasons appeared in 2006. Spike and the UFC continued to create and air new seasons until the show moved to FX in 2012. Following the success of The Ultimate Fighter , Spike also picked up UFC Unleashed , an hour-long weekly show featuring select fights from previous events. Spike also signed on to broadcast live UFC Fight Night,

9471-436: The criticism, the UFC increased cooperation with state athletic commissions and modified its rules to remove the less palatable elements of fights while retaining the core elements of striking and grappling . UFC 12 saw the introduction of weight classes and the banning of fish-hooking . For UFC 14 , gloves became mandatory, while kicks to the head of a downed opponent were banned. UFC 15 saw limitations on hair pulling, and

9594-447: The downloaded content at the time they desire, immediately and without any buffering issues. Push VOD depends on the viewer recording content so choices can be limited. Advertising video on demand (AVOD) uses an advertising-based revenue model. This allows companies that advertise on broadcast and cable channels to reach people who watch shows using VOD. This model also allows people to watch content without paying subscription fees. Hulu

9717-507: The economic viability of the VOD model include VOD movie buy-rates and setting Hollywood and cable operator revenue splits. Cable providers offered VOD as part of digital subscription packages, which by 2005 primarily allowed cable subscribers to only access an on-demand version of the content that was already provided in the linear traditional broadcasting distribution. These on-demand packages sometimes include extras and bonus footage in addition to

9840-481: The event as a real-life fighting video game tournament similar to Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat . SEG contacted video and film art director Jason Cusson to design a fighting arena for the event. Rorion and Davie didn't want a traditional roped ring , citing fears—by showing old Vale Tudo footage—that the fighters could escape through the ropes during grappling and use it as an advantage, or fall off and hurt themselves. SEG's executives agreed, and also wanted

9963-412: The excitement of the matches Davie saw on the videos. Gracie accepted, as he was interested in showcasing and promoting his family's own jiu-jitsu for a wide audience. Milius, a film director/screenwriter and Gracie student, agreed to be the event's creative director . Davie drafted the business plan , and 28 investors contributed the initial capital to start WOW Promotions to develop the tournament into

10086-488: The following key genres: comedy, crime, drama, horror and action. Select ongoing sports and related events to which the network or its partners have acquired rights, are also made available for livestreaming. Sony LIV also livestreamed its own and partnered TV channels on the platform. As of August 2023, Sony LIV communicated to the subscribers that their Live TV channels will be discontinued from Sony LIV from 30 August 2023. Option to register for and then play certain games

10209-476: The growing amount of marketing that is need to gain the attention of an audience, pinning down an exact budget for a film production can be difficult. Video on demand can have three release strategies that include: day-and-date (instantaneous release in theaters and on VOD), day-before-date (VOD before theatrical viewing), and VOD only. Production studios can make revenue on these types of releases until sales start to slow. After that, film companies can then license

10332-499: The home, subsequently increased to 25 Mbit/s. The content was provided by the BBC and Anglia Television . Although a technical success, difficulty in sourcing content was a major issue and the project closed in 1996. In 1997, Enron Corporation had entered the broadband market, constructing and purchasing thousands of miles of fiber-optic cables throughout the United States. In 2001, Enron and Blockbuster Inc. attempted to create

10455-411: The inaugural UFC featuring three-time champion Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock, called "The Superfight". "The Superfight" began as a non-tournament match that would determine the first reigning UFC Champion for tournament winners to face; it later evolved into a match that could feature either title matches or non-title matches. The "Superfight" would eventually completely phase out tournament matches. On

10578-504: The large downstream bandwidth present on their cable systems to deliver movies and television shows to end-users. These viewers can typically pause, fast-forward, and rewind VOD movies due to the low latency and random-access nature of cable technology. The large distribution of a single signal makes streaming VOD impractical for most satellite television systems. Both EchoStar / Dish Network and DirecTV offer VOD programming to PVR -owning subscribers of their satellite TV service. In Demand

10701-711: The latter two sources are declining due to streaming services offering much more lucrative performance contracts to performers, and several ring sports organisations (mainly UFC and WWE ) now prefer direct marketing of their product via streaming services such as ESPN+ , the WWE Network , and the apps of Fox Sports over pay-TV providers which require a portion of the profits they otherwise retain directly. In Australia, pay-TV broadcaster Foxtel offers NVOD for new-release movies over their satellite service. Edge Spectrum, an American holder of low-power broadcasting licenses, has an eventual business plan to use its network and

10824-736: The most common in the form of over-the-air television, VOD systems initially required each user to have an Internet connection with considerable bandwidth to access each system's content. In 2000, the Fraunhofer Institute IIS developed the JPEG2000 codec, which enabled the distribution of movies via Digital Cinema Packages. This technology has since expanded its services from feature-film productions to include broadcast television programmes and has led to lower bandwidth requirements for VOD applications. Disney , Paramount , Sony , Universal and Warner Bros. subsequently launched

10947-519: The most effective in the inaugural tournament, earning him the first ever UFC tournament championship after submitting Jimmerson, Shamrock, and Gordeau in succession. The show was extremely successful, with 86,592 pay-per-view television subscribers. It's disputed whether the promoters intended the event to be a precursor to future events. "That show was only supposed to be a one-off", eventual UFC president Dana White said. "It did so well on pay-per-view they decided to do another, and another. Never in

11070-890: The network, and 3DO as the set-top box with video streams and other information to be deployed to 2,500 homes. In 1994–95, US West filed for a patent concerning the provision of VOD in several cities: 330,000 subscribers in Denver, 290,000 in Minneapolis, and 140,000 in Portland. In early 1994, British Telecommunications (BT) introduced a trial VOD service in the United Kingdom. It used the DCT-based MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video compression standards, along with ADSL technology. Many VOD trials were held with various combinations of server, network, and set-top box. Of these

11193-422: The other hand, the first "Superfight" at UFC 5 was also considered a failure. In the first minute of the fight Shamrock knocked Royce to the ground and landed inside his guard. For the next 30 minutes Shamrock was inside Royce's guard, with the two throwing punches and headbutts at each other but without any change or action, with the crowd booing the fighters. After 30 minutes the fight was stopped as it had exceeded

11316-458: The pay-per-view industry's all-time records for a single year of business, generating over $ 222,766,000 in revenue in 2006, surpassing both WWE and boxing. The UFC continued its rapid rise from near obscurity with Roger Huerta gracing the cover of Sports Illustrated and Chuck Liddell on the front of ESPN The Magazine in May 2007. In Japan, Mixed Martial Arts took a separate, yet convergent evolution, with origins in " shoot wrestling ",

11439-423: The previous Zuffa shows averaged a mere 45,000 buys per event, and the company was suffering deep monetary losses. The success of UFC 40 provided a glimmer of hope for the UFC, and kept alive the hope that mixed martial arts could become big. Beyond the rivalry itself, the success of UFC 40 was due in part to the marketing and outreach power of crossover athletes – from Pro Wrestling to MMA and MMA to Pro Wrestling –

11562-519: The primary players in the US were the telephone companies using DEC, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, USA Video, nCube, SGI, and other servers. The DEC server system was the most-used in these trials. The DEC VOD server architecture used interactive gateways to set up video streams and other information for delivery from any of a large number of VAX servers, enabling it in 1993 to support more than 100,000 streams with full videocassette recorder (VCR)-like functionality. In 1994, it upgraded to

11685-539: The production companies. Behavior detrimental to SVOD revenue Online piracy is detrimental to production companies that produce digital content. In a study that offered BitTorrent users a free SVOD subscription, the results of the research provided readers with information that show download and upload speeds in those homes decreased with a free subscription, but it could not prove decreased use in BitTorrent software. Ultimate Fighting Championship This

11808-597: The purchase of the WEC allowed Zuffa to block the IFL from Versus without violating their contract. The WEC showcased lighter weight classes in MMA, whereas the UFC featured heavier weight classes. In December 2006, Zuffa also acquired their cross-town, Las Vegas rival World Fighting Alliance (WFA). The WFA had signed major fighters at the time, most notably Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Lyoto Machida , but their events turned out to be

11931-418: The purchase. "And I said 'What you don't understand is I'm getting the most valuable thing that I could possibly have, which is those three letters: UFC. That is what's going to make this thing work. Everybody knows that brand, whether they like it or they don't like it, they react to it. ' " Along with the trademark, they acquired a wooden octagon and around a dozen fighter's contracts. Later on, they negotiated

12054-507: The regular content. Peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing software allows the distribution of content without the linear costs associated with centralised streaming media . This innovation proved it is technically possible to offer the consumer potentially every film ever made, and the popularity and ease of use of such services may have motivated the rise of centralised video-on-demand services. Some services such as Spotify use peer-to-peer distribution to better scale their platforms. Netflix

12177-432: The same platforms as traditional TVOD, but at a higher price point, typically about US$ 20 for a 48-hour rental; this offering has again been branded as "Home Premiere" by some studios and platforms. Disney used the September 2020 release of the live-action remake of Mulan to launch a related model called Premier Access ; this requires customers to pay a premium fee (approximately US$ 26–30 depending on country) on top of

12300-428: The second season of The Ultimate Fighter , the UFC's match between Liddell and Couture drew an estimated 410,000 pay-per-view buys at UFC 57 . For the rest of 2006, pay-per-view buy rates continued to skyrocket, with 620,000 buys for UFC 60: Hughes vs. Gracie —featuring Royce Gracie's first UFC fight in 11 years—and 775,000 buys for UFC 61 featuring the highly anticipated rematch between Ken Shamrock and Tito Ortiz,

12423-457: The sport in Japan and in the world. Having high attendances on large sports arenas and watched by millions of spectators through free-to-air and pay-per-view television. Meanwhile, the UFC was struggling with political persecution, low pay-per-view sales, and doing events in backwater casinos. Most of UFC's best fighters would leave to fight in Japan instead due better pay and prestige. However, on 2006, Pride started to have financial issues due

12546-404: The tagline "There are no rules" in the early 1990s, the UFC did in fact operate with limited rules. In a UFC 4 qualifying match, competitors Jason Fairn and Guy Mezger agreed not to pull hair—as they both wore pony tails tied back for the match. The UFC had a reputation, especially in the early days, as an extremely violent event. UFC 5 also introduced the first singles match, a rematch from

12669-422: The termination of lucrative contracts with Japanese TV due a scandal revealing the strong ties between Pride and the yakuza . On March 27, 2007, the UFC and Pride announced an agreement in which the majority owners of the UFC, Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, would purchase the Pride brand. Initial intentions were for the organizations to be run separately but aligned together with plans to co-promote cards featuring

12792-415: The time limit allocated for the pay-per-view and was given another 5 minutes of extra time due to protests from the spectators. The fight was over after 36 minutes and a draw was declared. Because of this controversial fight, the UFC would later start to introduce time limits, judges to decide draws, and authorized referees to stand up fighters and restart the bout if they have too much inactivity. In 1996,

12915-405: The timeslot following WWE Raw . The show became an instant success, culminating with a notable season finale brawl featuring light heavyweight finalists Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar going toe-to-toe for the right to earn the six-figure contract. The live broadcast of the season finale drew a very impressive 1.9 overall rating. Dana White credits TUF 1 for saving the UFC, and claims that

13038-476: The trademarked Octagon, which became the event's signature setting. Cusson remained the group's production designer through UFC 27. SEG devised the show's name as " The Ultimate Fighting Championship ". WOW Promotions and SEG produced the first event, later retroactively called UFC 1 , at McNichols Sports Arena in Denver , Colorado on November 12, 1993. Art Davie was its booker and matchmaker. It proposed to find answers for sports fans' questions such as, "Can

13161-442: The user with features of portable media players and DVD players. Some VOD systems store and stream programs from hard disk drives and use a memory buffer to allow the user to fast-forward and rewind videos. It is possible to put video servers on local area networks ; these can provide rapid responses to users. Cable companies have rolled out their own versions of VOD services through apps, allowing television access wherever there

13284-460: The way for the seven Baby Bells— Ameritech , Bell Atlantic , BellSouth , NYNEX , Pacific Telesis , Southwestern Bell , and US West —to implement VOD systems. These companies and others began holding trials to set up systems for supplying video on demand over telephone and cable lines. In November 1992, Bell Atlantic announced a VOD trial. IBM was developing a video server code-named Tiger Shark. Concurrently, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)

13407-404: The wrestling promotion WWE to form TKO Group Holdings , a new public company majority-owned by Endeavor, with Vince McMahon serving as an executive chairman of the new entity and White remaining as UFC president. The merger was completed on September 12, 2023. Art Davie proposed to John Milius and Rorion Gracie an eight-man single-elimination tournament called "War of the Worlds". It

13530-434: Was a major AVOD company before ending its free service in August 2016, transferring it to Yahoo! View using the existing Hulu infrastructure. Crackle has introduced a series of advertisements for the same company that ties into the content that is being watched. Ad-Supported Video on Demand (ASVOD) refers to video services that provide free content supported by advertisements. Popular services include Pluto TV , Xumo ,

13653-608: Was developing a scalable video server configured from small-to-large for a range of video streams. Bell Atlantic selected IBM and in April 1993 the system became the first VOD over ADSL to be deployed outside the lab, serving 50 video streams. In June 1993, US West filed for a patent to register a proprietary system consisting of the Digital Equipment Corporation Interactive Information Server, Scientific Atlanta providing

13776-635: Was initially owned by the Semaphore Entertainment Group (SEG) until it had financial issues and it was sold to the brothers Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta in 2001, who formed the company Zuffa to operate the UFC, and placed Dana White as the president of the company. In 2016, UFC's parent company, Zuffa, was sold to a group led by Endeavor, then known as William Morris Endeavor (WME–IMG), including Silver Lake Partners , Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and MSD Capital for US$ 4.025 billion. In 2021, Endeavor bought out Zuffa's other owners at

13899-544: Was inspired by the "Gracies in Action" video-series produced by the Gracie family of Brazil which featured Gracie jiu-jitsu students defeating martial artists of various disciplines such as karate , kung fu , and kickboxing on Vale Tudo matches. The tournament would also feature martial artists from different disciplines facing each other in no-holds-barred combat to determine the best martial art, and would aim to replicate

14022-726: Was integrated into SonyLIV. Since then, LIV Sports has been a part of Sony LIV. Sony LIV underwent its first revamp and started to stream live television channels. Since then, Sony LIV has added many shows and movies to its portfolio. On 1 November 2018, Sony LIV and Lionsgate entered a multi-year content deal. As part of the deal, Sony LIV will offer an embedded Lionsgate Play with over 500 hours of premium-original series on its platform. In 2019, Sony LIV started to stream live channels of other networks, including news channels. Sony LIV revamped its content and interface in May 2020 using AWS Cloud . Sony LIV uses Amazon ElastiCache to support real-time, in-memory caching at scale, Amazon CloudFront as

14145-633: Was launched in France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK (9 April 2021). On 1 October 2021, as part of Europe Phase-2, Sony LIV was launched in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Sweden. On 26 April 2024, SonyLIV was launched in the United States. SonyLIV's core library consists of 18+ years of content from Culver Max Entertainment's channels including Sony TV , Sony SAB , Sony Aath and Sony Marathi ; and more than 700+ movies, which means

14268-469: Was launched on 16 November 2006 and the BBC's iPlayer , which was launched on 25 December 2007. Another example of online video publishers using legal peer-to-peer technology is based on Giraffic technology, which was launched in early 2011, with large online VOD publishers such as US-based VEOH and UK-based Craze's Online Movies Box movie rental service. Unlike broadcast television, which traditionally has been

14391-431: Was launched on 23 January 2013, by Culver Max Entertainment . LIV Sports was launched on 1 June 2014 by Culver Max Entertainment (as a new sports streaming service exclusively for sports properties). LIV Sports was the official mobile and internet broadcaster for the 2014 FIFA World Cup starting 12 June 2014. LIV Sports aired both live and video-on-demand match content with statistics and analysis. However, this service

14514-442: Was reported to be considering switching to a P2P model to cope with net neutrality problems from downstream providers. Transactional video on demand (TVOD) is a distribution method by which customers pay for each piece of video-on-demand content. For example, a customer would pay a fee for each movie or TV show that they watch. TVOD has two sub-categories: electronic sell-through (EST), by which customers can permanently access

14637-537: Was restricted to London. After attracting 40,000 customers, they were bought by Tiscali in 2006 which was, in turn, bought by Talk Talk in 2009. Cable TV providers Telewest and NTL (now Virgin Media) launched their VOD services in the United Kingdom in 2005, competing with the leading traditional pay-TV distributor BSkyB , which responded by launching Sky by broadband , later renamed Sky Anytime on PC . The service went live on 2 January 2006. Sky Anytime on PC uses

14760-701: Was set to become the first state in the U.S. to sign off on a set of codified rules that governed MMA. Soon after, New Jersey adopted the language. As the UFC continued to work with the athletic commissions, events took place in smaller U.S. markets, and venues, such as the Lake Charles Civic Center . The markets included states that are largely rural and less known for holding professional sporting events, such as Iowa, Mississippi, Louisiana, Wyoming, and Alabama. SEG could not secure home-video releases for UFC 23 through UFC 29 . With other mixed martial arts promotions working towards U.S. sanctioning,

14883-449: Was shut down due to a lack of funding. VOD services are now available in all parts of the United States, which has the highest global take-up rate of VOD. In 2010, 80% of American Internet users had watched video online, and 42% of mobile users who downloaded video preferred apps to a normal browser. Streaming VOD systems are available on desktop and mobile platforms from cable providers (in tandem with cable modem technology). They use

15006-402: Was the first time the UFC hit such a high mark since being forced "underground" in 1997. UFC 40 also garnered mainstream attention from media outlets such as ESPN and USA Today , something that was unfathomable for mixed martial arts at that point in time. Many have suggested that the success of UFC 40 and the anticipation for Ortiz vs. Shamrock saved the UFC from bankruptcy; the buyrates of

15129-448: Was watched, when it was watched, what they watched after watching, and even how many people watched the same video at the same time in a day, month, and even year. Economics of SVOD Attendance in movie theaters had declined during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Worldwide in 2019, theatrical entertainment reach 11.4 billion dollars, but in 2020, it was only 2.2 billion. Due recovery efforts to increase those attendance numbers, along with

#309690