ROH no longer doing live iPPVs

[Thriller Ant]

To our fans,

This past weekend at “Best in the World” in Baltimore, MD , Ring of Honor proved once again from top to bottom why our talent is truly the best in wrestling today. Unfortunately, there were some issues with the live iPPV stream that wound up distracting from the energy and action in ring. For this, we sincerely apologize to all fans that encountered problems.

Because of how much we value the support of our fans, and understand the imperfections of the live streaming technology, “Best in the World” will be the last iPPV stream that we will be broadcasting live. All future main event shows will now be offered as a Video On Demand, which will allow Ring of Honor to present a flawless show and truly depict the excellence of our product.

From now on, fans can watch ROH Wrestling on TV, VOD, or DVD, however there is still nothing like seeing Ring of Honor in person. We thank you for your continued support and are excited to be moving forward.

-Ring of Honor Wrestling

https://www.facebook.com/ringofhonor/posts/10151768053586328

This is probably the best move they could make at this point after all the issues the company has had with iPPVs. Fans should still buy the show, especially with lowered risk of feed issues. It sucks that it took them this long and this many problems to do it, but props to ROH for making a tough, but smart call.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

One thing I didn't want them to do. Might be nice for them to break away from the iPPV craze though.

 

[justinsayne]

What I want to know is how soon after the actual event will I have to wait before they post them up on their VOD service?

 

[Dream]

This is a pretty refreshing main event.

 

[Dream]

But I swear to god, if I see a RKO off the top rope for the 1000th time I'm going to be pissed.

 

[Slyfox696]

Not surprising. ROH has always been a 2 bit promotion when it comes to production values and they clearly were not ready to make this move.

 

[Thriller Ant]

Not surprising. ROH has always been a 2 bit promotion when it comes to production values and they clearly were not ready to make this move.

I ordered an iPPV a couple months back and the production values were actually really good. The Sinclair people put quite a bit of money into it and, when everything is working right, the show looks comparable to TNA. The issues were all in the live streaming, not the production.

 

[Rayne]

Let me help you cut through a bit of the bullshit surrounding this statement.

In my industry there's a company called DiscGolfPlanet.tv, which specializes in broadcasting live coverage of six to eight of the top professional events each year. They draw, depending on which event they're covering, somewhere around four thousand to six thousand viewers for final day tournament coverage. The technology isn't just similar to iPPV; it is exactly the same stuff. DiscGolfPlanet.tv clearly has money issues- they were subsisting on $25 donations, and recently moved to a 'live recap' model, where instead of broadcasting from the field, they broadcast from a studio. Huge step down, and in my ever humble opinion their original business model was noble but flawed, but I digress and here comes the point.

A company which is much smaller than ROH was able to deliver multi-camera live coverage, six to eight times per year, to thousands of viewers simultaneously. I recall one event where coverage started late, but on the whole, when they were broadcasting, you had no problems watching the stream. All of the equipment that DGP.tv needed to broadcast a live, high-bandwidth stream had to be brought out into the field with them.

If a company in such a small industry as 'professional disc golf' (believe it or not, that is a thing) can handle live in-the-field streaming, with production, to thousands of simultaneous viewers, it's pretty awful that ROH can't.

I've heard people blame "old wires in buildings"- that's horseshit. You bring the equipment in with you, you're not doing this over someone's old DSL wires. The reason ROH isn't doing live iPPV's anymore is the same reason DGP.tv doesn't do live field coverage anymore- not enough people were willing to pay for it. ROH and its millionaire corporate owners that I am constantly reminded about aren't going to throw down the amount of money it takes to offer quality live coverage, because there aren't enough people out there who want to pay for it.

Well, I guess at least now we get to hear about how Video On Demand is going to be the next huge thing in the industry. (And it probably will be, just not for ROH.)

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I'm surprised that they've waited this long to do this. There've been times I've wanted to check out an ROH iPPV but I never have because their history of technical difficulties is far too pronounced. Without reliability, it's just not worth putting up the money.