Turner issued a statement Saturday night acknowledging that it would be issuing refunds for those who paid $19.99 to stream the match at Shadow Creek on Bleacher Report Live.<\/b>
\nTurner Sports executives spent plenty of time coming up with a suggested pay-per-view price for \u00ab\u00a0The Match\u00a0\u00bb between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. Now it looks as though the company won’t see any broadcasting revenue from Friday’s event.
Turner issued a statement Saturday night acknowledging that it would be issuing refunds for those who paid $19.99 to stream the match at Shadow Creek on Bleacher Report Live.
\u00ab\u00a0The Match was an historic event, from Tiger’s opening tee shot to Phil’s final putt,\u00a0\u00bb Turner said in a statement. \u00ab\u00a0Prior to the start of the event, we experienced a technical issue with the B\/R Live paywall page that we tried to quickly resolve.
It took 22 holes, but Phil Mickelson finally prevailed in his $9 million showdown with Tiger Woods, telling him afterward, \u00ab\u00a0I will not ever let you live this one down.\u00a0\u00bb
The Match needed Tiger and Phil to be Tiger and Phil. Instead, we got 22 holes of so-so golf from the sport’s two biggest names.
\u00ab\u00a0We decided to take down the paywall to ensure that fans who already purchased the event would not miss any action. This did not impact the live streaming of the competition and fans were treated to an event that was both engaging and memorable. Unfortunately, the prematch technical issue did occur, and we will offer fans who purchased the event on B\/R Live a refund.\u00a0\u00bb
Earlier in the day, carriers Comcast and Spectrum said they would issue credits to customers after Turner decided to turn Bleacher Report Live on for free. Other carriers, including Cablevision, Verizon, Cox and DirecTV, have not made decisions on refunds.
Many fans who went to the Bleacher Report Live webpage minutes before the event saw a landing page that didn’t give them the opportunity to purchase the event. That the broadcast was streaming at no cost baffled some, unsure how it could happen after the pay-per-view price had been so widely publicized.
Mickelson won $9 million with a birdie on the 22nd hole.<\/p>\n