TV Nielsen Media Ratings for HBO... Martinez-Williams II, Marquez-Katsidis
by John Chavez
Nov 30, 2010 -
The ratings have finally arrived and will anybody care?
Last week it was reported by various media outlets that the rematch between Sergio Martinez vs. Paul Williams garnered the second highest ratings of the year barely trailing those drawn by the Miguel Cotto-Yuri Foreman fight this past June on HBO. It was a joyous occasion as the e-ticket tape parade was in full effect within the boxing media.
Slow down.
1.6 million live viewers was the number for Foreman-Cotto by far the leader of the year.
After having been provided the figures by the Nielsen Media company for the most recent HBO boxing programming, the figures are as follows:
November 12, 2010 - HBO - 6:30pm PST- 24/7 Part IV - Pacquiao-Margarito – 316,000 viewers
November 20, 2010 - HBO - 7:00pm PST - Pacquiao-Margarito replay – 1.3 million viewers
November 20, 2010 - HBO - 8:00pm PST - Martinez-Williams – 1.3 million viewers
November 27, 2010 - HBO - 7:00pm PST - Marquez-Katsidis – 998,000 viewers
What to make of all these strange figures...?
Well, it always amuses me that HBO would publicly tout certain ratings figures as "elevated" while attempting to mask the truth.
Following Cotto-Foreman, HBO would release a public figure touting 1.9 million total viewers for the bout which included the replay of the fight which is something I've never seen done before. Somebody needs to tell them we aren't living in 1965 and the power of information rests firmly at "The Boxing Truth's" fingertips.
PLUG: Remember to visit www.theboxingtruth.com every Sunday at 6pm PST/9pm EST for The Boxing Truth Radio. We enjoy being cursed out so call in boxing fans!
Now for the Martinez-Williams rematch we see a figure of 1.3 million viewers which isn't exactly "just under" the 1.6 million garnered by the live showing of Cotto-Foreman. The most interesting figure in all of this is the fact that the week-delayed replay of Manny Pacquiao's destruction of Antonio Margarito garnered... exactly the same figure that Martinez-Williams II garnered.
While this isn't horrible being that it is a significantly higher figure than say... Gamboa-Salido which did 744,000 live viewers, comparing it to merely a few years back the trend is definitely disturbing.
How much the Pacquiao-Margarito replay played a role in this elevated figure for the 2-round demotion is difficult to decipher.
Now for the Marquez-Katsidis triple-header also featuring Celestino Caballero vs. Jason Litzau and Andre Berto vs. Freddy Hernandez, I really don't know what the hell to think.
998,000 live viewers for a card that probably cost somewhere in the region of at least $3 million for HBO doesn't bode to well if you're crunching the stats per viewer.
Perhaps it might have something to do with the fact that a boxing card as such belongs nowhere near a casino wherever it might be located. Yes, I understand that it might take for the MGM Grand to expand it's tentacles to Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, or San Francisco before a boxing promoter dare set foot regularly into these locales but goddamn!
Over the next several weeks, I will be providing a statistical analysis of Nielsen television ratings for HBO and it's correlation with bouts being located in major metropolitan areas compared to the good ol' site fee casino. Yes, I understand that most U.S. boxing promoters are horribly inept at selling tickets and doing much else other than looking for a casino handout but I will provide the factual evidence that there is indeed a correlation between piss poor ratings per dollar and casino-based fights.
It does exist my friends.
Real simple stuff... you go to the media and people's backyard, they help distribute the product.
Unfortunately the powers that be at HBO and the power brokers within the boxing world will continue doing what they do while shriveling up the sport here in America until it reaches the shrinkage of Michael Marley's dehydrated brain.
Have a great day my friends!
http://www.theboxingtruth.com/article.php?id=1923
Horrible numbers for Marquez vs. Katsidis.
Really a huge bust there.
I knew that, I was just speaking relative to this topic.
Also, if you included the PPV numbers from various countries that wouldn't make for accurate statistical collection.
I don't think there a lot of other countries that have PPV for the fights we pay for here, I know Australia is PPV and I think in the Philippines it's closed circuit and they replay the fight on network with like 12 min commercials.
In the UK they usually piggy back a big US PPV with a big UK ppv and u get them both for the price of 1. Other then that I don't know of any countries where the fights are on PPV, maybe Tua in Samoa and new Zealand.
that's fine if you want to count it as 2 different things but it's the same show.
and sometimes the numbers will change but it's still shown together.
Yeah it is the same show but he tries to get both so we can see the difference and see what kind of viewer retention or drop off happens after the replay. One thing he did before was see what type of ratings ESPN2 was getting before the boxing and after the boxing to see how boxing affected the ratings. Next he is going to try to get the ratings for the shows on HBO and before boxing and after for a particular Saturday night.
The boxing ratings have been going down every year, there won't be a 2 million live viewer show this year.
One thing we have to consider is Boxing is a mostly minority driven sport in the US and the recession has hurt minorities especially Hispanics very hard. A lot of people can't even eat right now so of course the first things to go would be the luxuries, HBO is the ultimate luxury so that might have a big thing to do with it.
Nielsen only collects American viewership data.
Naw
they collect from all over the world but these figures are just from the US. Finding out what the total viewership from around the world would be almost impossible, just getting these US viewers isn't an easy task. That's why u only see them posted at the boxing truth, other boxing media doesn't have anyone on the inside or doesn't try to even get them.
It doesn't work that way.
Chavez got the rating for the replay then for the live fight, it's not always the same as u can see here.
9/26/2009 - Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Juan Manuel Marquez (replay) - 1.343 million viewers
9/26/2009 - Vitali Klitschko vs. Chris Arreola (live) - 2.124 million viewers
that's fine if you want to count it as 2 different things but it's the same show.
and sometimes the numbers will change but it's still shown together.
Hold on those #s are just in america? WTF why not have worldwide rating boxing is a global sport? Those #s are irrelevent
because those are hbo numbers?
what does hbo care about ratings outside the us?
they have hbo in other countries but that doesn't mean they have the rights to show those fights in those countries.
is there even a company who tracks worldwide tv ratings? would there even be a point since timeslots are all different in different parts of the world?
3. pac-marg replay and pwill-martinez was the same show even though they listed it separately. do you guys not watch hbo? if so , then you shouldn't comment on it.
this is how hbo works. a week after the big ppv , they hold a show showing the replay of the ppv fight and a live fight right after.
It doesn't work that way.
Chavez got the rating for the replay then for the live fight, it's not always the same as u can see here.
9/26/2009 - Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Juan Manuel Marquez (replay) - 1.343 million viewers
9/26/2009 - Vitali Klitschko vs. Chris Arreola (live) - 2.124 million viewers
seriously though......some of you guys talk and it seems like to me you guys don't know what you guys are talking about.
1. if network tv wanted boxing , they would have boxing. the networks have a ton of money. boxing is not worth it for them , that's why it's not on network tv anymore.
2. the amount of people logged on fight night on a boxing site doesn't mean ****. a lot of people don't log on to a boxing forum when watching a fight.
more importantly on big fight nights websites like boxing scene closes the forum to non-members to help lessen the load on the site's servers.
3. pac-marg replay and pwill-martinez was the same show even though they listed it separately. do you guys not watch hbo? if so , then you shouldn't comment on it.
this is how hbo works. a week after the big ppv , they hold a show showing the replay of the ppv fight and a live fight right after.
Marquez-Diaz I had a good rating and this was only a year and a half ago.
Both this and the Martinez-Williams fight had zero promotion. Typical 'make money of HBO and a casino without bothering to promote' mindset that is hurting the sport, and usually Golden Boy can do a decent job. Blah.
Just look at what they're doing with Bradley-Alexander, how do they expect people to know about these fights outside the hardcore followers.
Im am very suprised that the Pac-Marg replay did the same numbers as Sergio-Williams II
it was on the same time/same night.
it was technically the same show.
they played the replay first and then went to the live fight.
What has been the lowest rating of the year so far?
3-27-2010 - HBO - Boxing After Dark - Marcos Maidana-Victor Cayo/Ali Funeka-Joan Guzman II - 696,000 live viewers
Yeah but those were just regular LHW fights. Dawson-Pascal was for the LHW belt just like Marquez-Kats for the LW belt.
Yeah and Dawson vs. Johnson was the #1 ranked buy vs. the #2. That got 774,000.
Big guys don't necessarily bring in viewers.
Khan vs. Malignaggi got better ratings then Pascal vs. Dawson.
Khan-Malignaggi got the 2nd highest rating this year. But as the article in this thread says, the location might influence the ratings, and that fight being held in NY would have helped.
Oh right! Hmmm, that is certainly something, buddy.
I have been streaming fights for years but only been on any boxing forum for only a year
Most of my friends stream fights and i also stream HBO fights even though i have HBO, usually because i cant be home at that time
My point is not only boxing forumers stream fights