Not a lot yet. The issue is supposedly going to be addressed as the press conference happening after the show (right as you read this.) It’s unclear why nothing could be explained during the show.
The uStream was listed as offline for most of the first hour it was supposed to be on, then “Live” without every actually showing a picture. AAA twice mentioned there were problems and they were working on them, then mentioned there’d be that press conference to explain it. It wasn’t immediately obvious they meant a press conference after the show.
Here's the message @Lucha_Libre_AAA has put up on their uStream. No mention of refunds or a press conference. pic.twitter.com/lFqcpt63gS
— luchablog (@luchablog) June 17, 2013
None of this was mentioned on the uStream themselves page itself. Instead, this message was put up, blaming uStream from the problem. No explanation of what would happen next was listed on the uStream page and AAA stopped updating the situation on their Twitter after the message was posted.
Roberto Figuera, who was at TripleMania and has a business relationship with AAA, posted this message on Twitter
Para todos aquellos que no pudieron ver Triplemania por iPPV, tengo entendido que se repetirá el Miércoles 8pm.
— Roberto Figueroa (@RJ_Figueroa) June 17, 2013
That says the show will reair on Wednesday at 8 pm. AAA themselves have said nothing about this.
AAA handled this horribly. Not having the stream up is disastrous. AAA also has talked a lot about how important social media is for them, and they completely fell down there. AAA did not acknowledge there was a problem until 15-20 minutes after the show started, they did not keep people updated, they did offer a remedy, and they made people wait for information from other sources to find out what went on.
Plenty of other wrestling companies have used uStream without having this happen. Plenty of other people were able to use the internet in Arena Ciudad de Mexico. Only AAA had this problem, and their shifting of the blame seems duplicitous at best. It’s also beside the point – the only thing people watching that window wanted to see was TripleMania or some info about when they might see TripleMania. AAA gave an excuse instead, and not even hint about when they might get to see what they paid for.
iPPV revenue is tiny portion of the revenue for this show. If they had 200 buys for a show with no promotion outside of Mexico, and no promotion on their TV as an iPPV, that would’ve been a grand success. AAA still sold conventional PPVs (which dropped off during opener but was fine for the rest of the show) and still appear to have sold most of the tickets in the building. Still, iPPV buyers were either the strongest fans AAA has or casual fans from other places AAA hopes to be running soon, and AAA has left those fans feeling robbed. Those aren’t the fans who are going to support you going forward.
If AAA ever does another iPPV, I would advise not buying it. Go to a show if you can, but don’t trust that AAA can handle something like this.
Honestly, I’m about as furious about how they handled the feed not working as about the feed itself. It’s unacceptable for a fly by night indy promotion, much less a promotion that claims to be major league.
I’ll update this if/when any more information is posted.
Update:
Dorian Roldan’s addressed the situation on Twitter
http://twitter.com/dorianroldan/status/346489116596244483
http://twitter.com/dorianroldan/status/346489450752245761
http://twitter.com/dorianroldan/status/346489784815992832
Dorian apologizes for the problem. He puts the blame on uStream. He says refunds are already being processed and the show will be posted on AAA’s website tomorrow as a make good.
Assuming the refunds actually turn up in full, that’s a good first step. It doesn’t make up the time people spent trying to watch a show they couldn’t see, or missing out on the experience of watching a show live. It’s enough to stop people from hounding you about this problem for the rest of time, but it doesn’t totally make up for the experience. I’d still say not to buy an AAA iPPV in the future until they have a strong track record.
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I hope no one who posts here actually ordered the AAA iPPV. I sure didn’t.
Why? Because we all knew it would turn out just like this.
I guess I’ve become pretty jaded when it comes to technology. I assumed everything would be fine if a major wrestling show like this was running through the service. Much less something people paid for. I thought about ordering it but one of my housemates wanted to watch the Spurs-Heat game. Guess I lucked out :P
@LLL: To be fair we all thought that way about the IWL iPPV and that came off without a hitch. Twice!
And there is the desire to encourage this type of access in the future. Everyone wanted AAA to succeed, and we all were expecting and willing to accept some bumps along the way. This wasn’t a bump, it was a dead end.