Showtime Exec: If You Make Best Fights, Ratings Will Soon Follow

By Victor Salazar

New York - If there was a network that has hit the ground running in the first quarter of 2017, it's been Showtime. So far the network has televised main event fights like the draw between Badou Jack (20-1-3, 12 KO's) and James Degale (23-1-1, 14 KO's), the rematch between Leo Santa Cruz (33-1-1, 18 KO’s) and Carl Frampton (23-1, 14 KO’s) where Santa Cruz exacted revenge on Frampton, and most recently Adrien Broner (33-2, 24 KO’s) slightly edging Adrian Granados (18-5-2, 12 KO’s).

Sprinkled in between has been stellar fights like Gervonta Davis (17-0, 16 KO’s) knocking out Jose Pedraza (22-1, 12 KO’s), Mikey Garcia (36-0, 30 KO’s) making a statement by knocking out Dejan Zlaticanin (22-1, 15 KO’s), and a slugfest that saw Marcus Browne (19-0, 14 KO’s) stop Thomas Williams (22-0, 14 KO’s).

They have also been developing the up and coming fighters with solid ShoBox: The Next Generation shows.

In a not too often occurrence, the January 28th televised card on Showtime, which featured the Santa Cruz and Frampton rematch, outdrew the HBO fight that saw Miguel Berchelt (31-1, 28 KO’s) stop Francisco Vargas(23-1-2, 16 KO’s). Santa Cruz-Frampton averaged 587,000 viewers, peaking with 643,000 viewers. While Vargas-Berchelt had an average of 497,000 viewers, peaking at 561,000.

It may have been a small win in the grand scheme of things but Showtime has about 30% less subscribers and at the moment is putting on the more evenly matched fights on the network while their rivals at HBO have an abundance of pay-per-views upcoming with very few good fights in between.

Stephen Espinoza, the Executive Vice President Showtime Sports, has provided a platform for the Premier Boxing Champion Series on his network and feels that better fights will ultimately lead to better ratings and more support for the sport regardless of the subscription’s base.

“Our theory has always been a rising tide leads on boats,” Espinoza told BoxingScene.com. “So when people get excited about boxing, the buzz builds. We see that throughout the sport, we see that even in the Shobox ratings. It’s better for the sport when the right fights are being made. You will see the support. You see that not only in ratings and ticket sales. What all of us can do is continue to do well-matched competitive fights and minimum of showcases”

This Saturday another one of the well matched competitive fights will be aired Showtime’s parent company CBS in primetime. Keith Thurman (27-0, 22 KO’s) puts his WBA Welterweight title on the line when he takes on Danny Garcia (33-0, 19 KO’s), who will be putting his WBC Welterweight title on the line, at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center

The last time CBS aired a card in primetime, Thurman won a decision over Shawn Porter (26-2-1, 16 KO’s ) inside the same venue. The bout drew averaged 3.1 million viewers, with a peak audience of 3.94 million viewers. Although attendance records are expected to be broken for the venue in terms of combat sports with Thurman-Garcia, the Showtime executive hopes it can replicate the ratings Thurman-Porter drew even if there is more competition on television Saturday night.

“We don’t have a target in place,” Espinoza stated on the potential viewership for the fight. “We want to continue to grow the audience. We certainly want to do the number that we had in Thurman’s last fight - we certainly hope to surpass it. There is certainly a lot more competition. There’s a UFC that night. So there’s always different factors in it. We’re looking for a big an audience possible and believe a fight like this will hope grow the sport.”