Setanta delighted with Haye-Barrett figures

Saturday's heavyweight showdown between David 'The Hayemaker' Haye and Monte 'Two Gunz' Barrett managed to draw a peak viewing audience of 343,000 on Setanta Sports, surpassing Haye's March demolition of Enzo Maccarinelli. The lofty figures for Haye-Barrett mean the non-title fight was the third most watched bout in Setanta Sports history, behind only Joe Calzaghe's contests with Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones. Leonard Ryan, Setanta Sports' joint Chief Executive said: "We're extremely pleased with the audience figures from Saturday and it proves there is considerable appeal for David Haye out there. The fact this non-title fight surpassed the audience we received for his cruiserweight unification title fight against Enzo Maccarinelli in March shows the level of interest in following Haye's quest to become heavyweight champion of the world. "As the exclusive rights holder to his next three fights, we fully expect audience figures to increase ahead of a potential world heavyweight title fight in 2009."

Comments (19)

BetterCallSaul

why is that good for the UK, but a COMPLETE bust in the US??? Setanta only has 3 million subscribers in the UK. So 1 in 10 viewing rates are pretty good for this fight. P4P, viewing figures for boxing in the UK probably far outweight the U.S.

17y ago

Ray

Im thinking bout getting setanta but at the moment im still downloading all my fights, it seems great value for money sky looks like a complete rip off compared to it. The one question i have for people that have setanta does it still cut off after midnight on freeview? lol Yeah me too i have a sky subscription at the moment and normally watch boxing on streams (Laptop)...But Setanta seem to be doing well with there coverage of football, boxing and other sports. I like the fact that they show foreign football leagues like the french,german and foreign boxing fights.

17y ago

Davros

17y ago

Muttley85

why is that good for the UK, but a COMPLETE bust in the US??? 301 million people live in the US, 60.7m in the UK. So its equivalent to 1.7 million people watching in the US.

17y ago

Dynamite_Kid

Good to see it doing well, cheers for the info. I watched it down a local pub and there was a bit of interest. It's clear there's a fair bit of ignorance to the HW division but this is getting people talking again, and into the soap that is, all the different fighters, their characters, styles and likely match ups. I'd much prefer to see Setanta succeeding then Sky too. I do find it funny they signed a PPV deal with a prospect with no belts in Khan, whom just got owned. Meanwhile Setanta are having a great run with all the fights they've shown. Plus their subscription for one month for £10, and included in many home packages, big fights not on PPV, it's clear that reaps rewards rather than ripping folk off. ahmen to that Kris i hope they keep the prices at the right price for the fans and dont alienate the next generation of fans the way sky did back in the 90" when they took Boxing away from terestrial tv and put in on sky

17y ago

Kris_Silver

17y ago

Addition

Boxing is the only good thing Setanta have got, they're lucky to have Haye.

17y ago

yeah setanta used to be unknown, now in my opinion they have better sports on than sky. i think they are a year or two away from surpassing Sky in terms of all-round quality, and the subscribers will follow been with setanta for a year and im happy with them... esp this season as they have more prem matches being able to watch my beloved west brom be hammered by the top 4 live is great

17y ago

Dynamite_Kid

yeah setanta used to be unknown, now in my opinion they have better sports on than sky. well with sky showing the normal British title dross and making you pay for every big fight im deffo in the Setanta fan club their broadcasts are getting better aswell its the Buncey effect :lol1:

17y ago

JR3417

Sky's boxing coverage sucks, thats great news for setanta and Haye!!!

17y ago

No1

There are a lot more of you for starters and.... And Setanta is an as yet unestablished channel. It's an Irish channel and up until a few years ago it was predominantly known for showing Gaelic sports. They used to charge an absolute fortune to Irish pubs in England to pick up the channel, which was the only way of watching the All Ireland championships in both Hurling and Gaelic football. Setanta are great though! yeah setanta used to be unknown, now in my opinion they have better sports on than sky.

17y ago

Dynamite_Kid

In england we love are heavyweights. we love are Heavyweights :lol1: you from Norwich Duffgun ??

17y ago

Davros

In england we love are heavyweights.

17y ago

sparked_85

why is that good for the UK, but a COMPLETE bust in the US??? There are a lot more of you for starters and.... And Setanta is an as yet unestablished channel. It's an Irish channel and up until a few years ago it was predominantly known for showing Gaelic sports. They used to charge an absolute fortune to Irish pubs in England to pick up the channel, which was the only way of watching the All Ireland championships in both Hurling and Gaelic football. Setanta are great though!

17y ago

RichCCFC

Haye - Barrett was on PRIMETIME in the UK, Calzaghe - Jones, Calzaghe - Hopkins, Calzaghe - Kessler and Haye - Maccarinelli were not.

17y ago

Dynamite_Kid

why is that good for the UK, but a COMPLETE bust in the US??? probably population and popularity of the sport Boxing has a VERY small space on the back of our newspapers and some dont even bother

17y ago

The_Gully_Gad

Lets just hope they dont start charging for these fights

17y ago

ORANGEY

Maybe because the UK is alot smaller than the US

17y ago

Kball15

why is that good for the UK, but a COMPLETE bust in the US???

17y ago