(CNN) – The broadcast of the highly anticipated boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao was hit with piracy, despite television executives’ best efforts to prevent illegal viewing.
Users of live-streaming sites Periscope and Meerkat began shooting footage of the fight from their TVs and sharing it shortly after the starting bell on Saturday.
Periscope and Meerkat allow users to shoot footage from their smartphones and tablets and share it on social media. Periscope’s streams stay visible for 24 hours, while Meerkat’s disappear when the recording ends.
It’s likely that piracy was worsened due to many cable providers, including Time Warner and Charter, suffering service outages prior to the start of the fight. The start of the fight was delayed as providers dealt with the issues.
The piracy follows Showtime and HBO jointly filing a copyright infringement lawsuit against several streaming sites on Tuesday. Periscope and Meerkat reps say that copyrighted footage will be removed from their sites.
Users began tweeting about streaming the fight shortly after it began:
