Periscope, the Twitter live-streaming app, barged its way into sports’ biggest stage on Saturday as Floyd Mayweather Jr. defeated Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas. How many thousands of people watched the bout via Periscope is not easy to calculate, but for those who did, the rogue approach to viewership represented saving a pay-per-view fee of as much as $100 — and a potentially worrisome moment for rights holders.
Using Periscope requires nothing more than holding up a smartphone to a screen and streaming the live events to countless others in real time. The picture is secondhand, and certainly not as clear as that on a 50-inch HD screen, but that is a small sacrifice to get the so-called fight of the century for nothing.