Showtime hit with lawsuits over Mayweather fight pay per view

[August 29, 2017]  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Two U.S. boxing fans have filed lawsuits against cable TV provider Showtime over the quality of the livestream for the much-hyped weekend fight between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor.

Two separate lawsuits, filed in Oregon federal court by Portland resident Zack Bartel and by Victor Mallh in New York federal court, seek class-action status for what they allege were failures in Showtime's pay-per-view livestream of the match in Las Vegas.

Bartel and Mallh said they had paid $99.95 to Showtime to watch the match.

Bartel's unlawful trade practices lawsuit said that instead of being a "witness to history" as promotions for the fight had promised, all he saw was "grainy video, error screens, buffer events, and stalls."

Mallh's breach-of-contract lawsuit said his service continually logged out and when he was able to watch, "the pictures were delayed, cutting out, or otherwise incomplete." Both are seeking jury trials.

Showtime, a unit of CBS Corp, said it could not comment on ongoing litigation.

Chris DeBlasio, senior vice president of sports communications at Showtime, said, however, the network was offering limited refunds to those who bought the fight through its pay-per-view app.

Conor McGregor in action with Floyd Mayweather Jr. REUTERS/Steve Marcus

"While we at Showtime received a very limited amount of complaints, we will issue a full refund to any customers who purchased the event directly from Showtime and were unable to receive the telecast," DeBlasio said.

Mayweather beat mixed martial arts champion McGregor in a 10th-round technical knockout on Saturday in what was thought to be one of the richest boxing matches of all time.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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