By Keith Idec
HBO’s boxing broadcast beat Showtime’s telecast Saturday night by a significant margin.
According to ratings released this week by Nielsen Media Research, HBO’s audience more than doubled Showtime’s audience. The HBO “World Championship Boxing” broadcast highlighted by Nonito Donaire’s three-round demolition of Mexico’s Jorge Arce drew slightly more than 1.3 million viewers, while the “Showtime Championship Boxing” telecast that featured Amir Khan’s 10th-round stoppage of Carlos Molina drew roughly 616,000 viewers.
Showtime’s live broadcast began at 10:30 p.m. ET, an hour after HBO’s telecast started. The HBO broadcast also had a strong lead-in, because the network replayed Juan Manuel Marquez’s one-punch, sixth-round knockout of Manny Pacquiao.
The Showtime doubleheader began with hard-hitting heavyweight Deontay Wilder’s third-round knockout of previously undefeated Kelvin Price.
HBO’s subscriber base exceeds Showtime’s by approximately 8 million as well, which also accounts for some of HBO’s advantage in boxing viewership.
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
