How live pay-per-view works
The event is listed with a price before it starts. A viewer buys a ticket, which adds an entitlement for that event to their account. When the stream goes live, the player checks the entitlement before starting playback. Sales normally stay open during the event.
Pricing a live event
- Anchor on what the audience pays to attend in person or to watch similar events
- Offer an early-bird price to bring sales forward and gauge demand
- Set prices per region, since what a fight or concert is worth varies widely by market
- Consider a pass covering a series or season for regular viewers
- Decide whether subscribers get a discount
What goes wrong, and how to prevent it
Most purchases happen in the last half hour. If checkout or sign-in slows at that moment, buyers miss the opening and ask for refunds. Load-test the purchase path, not only the video, and open doors early with a pre-show.
Live events are also the most pirated content. Limit each ticket to one stream at a time, restrict playback to licensed regions, use DRM, and for high-value events add forensic watermarking so that a restream can be traced and shut down while the event is still running.
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