Outages reported nationwide on Mayweather-Pacquiao PPV

The pay per view cablecast for the Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao has begun, but for viewers nationwide who have been trying to buy the fight in the hours leading up to the big event, they are finding some difficulty.

Subscribers to some of the major cable and satellite providers report problems in accessing the pay per view. Now HBO and Showtime had been appealing to people to buy the fight early so they wouldn’t encounter problems, but fans usually buy pay per views on the day of, usually just hours or even minutes before the PPV begins.

Charter has acknowledged the difficulties for ordering the fight:

https://twitter.com/CharterCom/status/594673009539035136

The New York Times’ Richard Sandomir notes that HBO is pleading patience:

But that still hasn’t prevented the outages.

https://twitter.com/stevekopack/status/594679739605979136

This is cable’s worst nightmare as people get together for parties at homes across the country and as they press their remotes to order the fight, viewers get nothing. Cable providers will have to provide refunds or credits to angry customers who are expecting to watch the pay per view, but are getting disappointment instead.

We’ll continue to monitor the story and update as more information becomes available.

UPDATE, 11:18 p.m. ET: Sports Illustrated reports the start of the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight will be delayed due to the PPV issues:

HBO’s Jim Lampley has acknowledged on the PPV that the fight is being delayed. This is unbelievable.

UPDATE, 11:59 p.m. ET: Deadline reports that despite the problems with the PPV’s across the country, the fight will net a huge amount of buys which means a lot of money for HBO/Showtime.