CBS/Viacom merger is apparently being looked at

Spike is certainly in the combat sports business, as they've been for a long time, with the UFC and now with Bellator. Given that Viacom owns a majority stake in Bellator, and they continue to add to their roster, so it looks like Spike is fully committed to the combat sports business. But where's the evidence that they're commmitted to the PBC? There are far fewer PBC shows on Spike than the "monthly" shows originally planned. I don't know how reducing the number of PBC shows on their network demonstrates a long-term commitment. And Kevin Kay, of Spike, was clear at the start that he wanted to see ratings improve for boxing over time, and that just hasn't happened. PBC on Spike 3/13/2015 869,000 4/24/2015 569,000 5/22/2015 772,000 6/12/2015 446,000 8/14/2015 679,000 9/11/2015 581,000 10/16/2015 315,000 11/13/2015 466,000 4/1/2016 873,000 4/29/2016 513,000 7/29/2016 531,000 8/27/2016 507,000 9/9/2016 547,000 http://mmapayout.com/category/boxing/premier-boxing-champions/ If Spike Sports is going to be a combat sports channel, and not simply the channel that airs Bellator, the three-legged stool, so to speak and as an outsider looking in, would be MMA (BellatorFC), Boxing (PBC), and Kickboxing (GLORY, but now replaced with Bellator: Kickboxing), with most weeks of the calendar occupied with some sort of fighting for combat sports fans to come see. Simply put, I don't see Viacom putting the trust in their boxing content in anyone other than PBC/Haymon at this point (NBC is seemingly done with boxing, Richard Schaefer is likely to end up with the deal/part of the deal for FS1, and ESPN is likely to stick with boxing in some capacity).

It's been their target for years, which is why they had the UFC, and after they left brought in Bellator, which Viacom owna big part of...and they continue to build up their Bellator roster by signing up former UFC fighters like Benson Henderson and Chael Sonnen. But regarding the younger crowd, the PBC ratings on Spike among 18-34 and 18-49 demos are still far behind the Bellator ratings. No I meant that he said he was targeting the younger UFC crowd for boxing. He also said they would go dark during college football season, a lesson PBC learned from last yr.

Arum was supposed to bring Manny Pacquiao to Showtime, brought Pacquiao over for a single fight, before jumping back to HBO with Pacquiao and the rest of the roster (basically becoming the house promoter for HBO). If you honestly think that Moonves forgot that, you're a fool. NBC looks to be out of the fold, which is fine. If you honestly think that the PBC effort is done entirely, that's on you. I'd just hope that you don't tuck tail and turn ***** when the Winter fight schedule starts to fill in. Lol. Freddie roach started the COBOL with Les Moonves. Winter schedule? Lmaooooo. All there will be are showtime fights which aren't paid by PBC and 2 spike fights which aren't paid by PBC. PBC is done. Just cheap fs1 fights till the $ runs dry and a few ESPN shoes which are cheap fs1 level next year. I will wait for the winter schedule like I waited for the spring and summer schedule lol. You can see the cards and purses and level of fights has fallen dramatically off. Big fights just on showtime where ey pay girl fights since fad up guerrero.

Please define what you mean by 'CBS fights', because CBS Sports Network has been running its 'Knockout Night at the D’ series all year. No matter how you spin it, a world championship boxing match was promoted from a cable channel (Showtime) to the primetime NETWORK television owner of said channel (CBS). Think about that for a moment. If Showtime did the same for 'Homeland' or 'Shameless', I highly doubt folks would consider that a negative reflection on CBS' feelings about the content. Not really sure what the disconnect is here. CBS sports are all time buys by Roy jones and Greg Cohen and a Shane Mosley fight. They don't include PBC or haymon. Also they don't cost cbs any money. All time buys. They just sell the slot

Seems they are. Spike Pesident says the younger mma crowd is their target. It's been their target for years, which is why they had the UFC, and after they left brought in Bellator, which Viacom owna big part of...and they continue to build up their Bellator roster by signing up former UFC fighters like Benson Henderson and Chael Sonnen. But regarding the younger crowd, the PBC ratings on Spike among 18-34 and 18-49 demos are still far behind the Bellator ratings.

Spike TV is seemingly in the combat sports business; whether it be MMA, boxing, or kickboxing, it seems like SpikeTV has made combat sports a core focus of their product. Maybe it's just me, but I doubt that SpikeTV will ever go to Golden Boy or Top Rank to lock-in their boxing programming. Spike is certainly in the combat sports business, as they've been for a long time, with the UFC and now with Bellator. Given that Viacom owns a majority stake in Bellator, and they continue to add to their roster, so it looks like Spike is fully committed to the combat sports business. But where's the evidence that they're commmitted to the PBC? There are far fewer PBC shows on Spike than the "monthly" shows originally planned. I don't know how reducing the number of PBC shows on their network demonstrates a long-term commitment. And Kevin Kay, of Spike, was clear at the start that he wanted to see ratings improve for boxing over time, and that just hasn't happened. PBC on Spike 3/13/2015 869,000 4/24/2015 569,000 5/22/2015 772,000 6/12/2015 446,000 8/14/2015 679,000 9/11/2015 581,000 10/16/2015 315,000 11/13/2015 466,000 4/1/2016 873,000 4/29/2016 513,000 7/29/2016 531,000 8/27/2016 507,000 9/9/2016 547,000 http://mmapayout.com/category/boxing/premier-boxing-champions/

ive read all the articles how pac vs may was made. do your homework and read about how arum brought pac vs mosley and cotto vs mayorga to showtime and how les mooves was instrumental in that with his friend arum. whoops your bad lol. As for CBS they aren't interested in putting boxing on CBS. Only Showtime. Which proves my point even more that they may end up putting boxing on only 1-2 channels if there is a merger. If they really wanted more they would have already followed up on the success of Thurman Porter. Instead PBC is on its last legs with no more big shows scheduled the rest of the year. Only small espn and fs1 cards and the two Spike cards that Spike actually pays for. Fox, NBC, CBS is all done and been done. NBC just wants to collect their fees for the two shows they are owed in Jan/Feb and kiss the PBC goodbye. Arum was supposed to bring Manny Pacquiao to Showtime, brought Pacquiao over for a single fight, before jumping back to HBO with Pacquiao and the rest of the roster (basically becoming the house promoter for HBO). If you honestly think that Moonves forgot that, you're a fool. NBC looks to be out of the fold, which is fine. If you honestly think that the PBC effort is done entirely, that's on you. I'd just hope that you don't tuck tail and turn ***** when the Winter fight schedule starts to fill in.

You're the one who seems to have a love affair with an old man. Haymon can do no wrong in your eyes, a sure sign of pure love. Haymon can do plenty wrong; of the 50 some-odd shows that he ended up putting on in Yr 1 of PBC, I easily was able to see 15 or so fight cards that I'd rather not want to tune in for, with enough of the shows that I did tune in for not being all that good, tbh. The issue that seems to stick in people's craw, however, is that, with putting on 50 shows in Yr 1, i could easily point to 15 fight cards that I really enjoyed, and tons of fights on the cards that I wasn't over the moon for that I also enjoyed. Yr 2 is well on it's way (the year started March 2016) and, of the nearly 35 PBC cards put on this year, 17 of the shows have been enjoyable to watch (the bigger fights have taken a backseat this year, so far, but the expansion of 50/50-60/40 fights, featuring fighters on the way up, has been fun to watch). Through the sheer volume of fight cards, fight fans will find shows that they enjoy. The issue with folks like you, though, is that you're seeing Haymon putting on all of these shows, with hits/misses, yet the folks not with Haymon are putting on far fewer shows (with a lot of those shows being utter ****), so your only comfort is to blame someone else for the **** fights that you have to sit through. hilarious

You are failing to acknowledge that all of the higher ups won't still be around if a merger occurs. The fat gets eliminated. Jobs get cut. I could see Bellator staying at Spike and PBC staying at Showtime since they pay for boxing. But with Espinoza talking to Top Rank who knows how much budget will be there for PBC at Showtime. As for CBS they haven't paid for one single fight in decades. They didn't go into their budget for Thurman-Porter. Provide some proof of that. I will wait. Digging further into that. How many other CBS fights have you seen this year (paid by PBC or by Showtime). That will show you how dedicated they are too boxing. Not very. Please define what you mean by 'CBS fights', because CBS Sports Network has been running its 'Knockout Night at the D’ series all year. No matter how you spin it, a world championship boxing match was promoted from a cable channel (Showtime) to the primetime NETWORK television owner of said channel (CBS). Think about that for a moment. If Showtime did the same for 'Homeland' or 'Shameless', I highly doubt folks would consider that a negative reflection on CBS' feelings about the content. Not really sure what the disconnect is here.

Hating ass mexican...:lol1: we don't know yet if there will be a merger or if they would keep boxing, cut it back or whatever. you people are something else :lame:

hearing how the mayweather-pacquiao negotiations went about, that first statement is false on its face. Showtime/CBS are all under the same umbrella, and have continued to expand their investment in boxing since making the Floyd move. nice try, though ive read all the articles how pac vs may was made. do your homework and read about how arum brought pac vs mosley and cotto vs mayorga to showtime and how les mooves was instrumental in that with his friend arum. whoops your bad lol. As for CBS they aren't interested in putting boxing on CBS. Only Showtime. Which proves my point even more that they may end up putting boxing on only 1-2 channels if there is a merger. If they really wanted more they would have already followed up on the success of Thurman Porter. Instead PBC is on its last legs with no more big shows scheduled the rest of the year. Only small espn and fs1 cards and the two Spike cards that Spike actually pays for. Fox, NBC, CBS is all done and been done. NBC just wants to collect their fees for the two shows they are owed in Jan/Feb and kiss the PBC goodbye.

^^^ about what I've come to expect from the butt-boys here You're the one who seems to have a love affair with an old man. Haymon can do no wrong in your eyes, a sure sign of pure love.

I'm not sure pairing up their Bellator events with PBC events proves Spike is content with the PBC content or that they're committed to PBC long term. Seems they are. Spike Pesident says the younger mma crowd is their target.

Les Moonves is friends with arum. Of course he wanted to make the mist lucrative fight in boxing history. Yeah he loved boxing so much he had more shows in 2015 paid by PBC than the #1 card paid by showtime. Yeah 3 hours dedicated to boxing over 52 weeks I a year. He's really interested lol. So interested that they still haven't scheduled a follow up fight and we are 3 months removed from that fight. Yes boxing is really important and on the forefront of what CBS is interested in lol. hearing how the mayweather-pacquiao negotiations went about, that first statement is false on its face. Showtime/CBS are all under the same umbrella, and have continued to expand their investment in boxing since making the Floyd move. nice try, though

Les Moonves is the Chairman/President/CEO of CBS Corp, and he's on board with boxing (was instrumental in bringing Floyd on board, put his loathing or Arum aside to make Mayweather-Pacquiao, etc). This isn't AOL/TimeWarner, when the person with interest in wrestling got pushed out, leaving the folks with no interest happy to boot it when things turned a bit. Beyond that, the fact that CBS pushed Thurman-Porter across all of their properties, in addition to pushing the fight during commercials on CBS, while also allocating nearly three hours or primetime on CBS (not paid for by PBC) for the fight makes it utterly obvious that CBS stepped up for the fight. Les Moonves is friends with arum. Of course he wanted to make the mist lucrative fight in boxing history. Yeah he loved boxing so much he had more shows in 2015 paid by PBC than the #1 card paid by showtime. Yeah 3 hours dedicated to boxing over 52 weeks I a year. He's really interested lol. So interested that they still haven't scheduled a follow up fight and we are 3 months removed from that fight. Yes boxing is really important and on the forefront of what CBS is interested in lol.

You are failing to acknowledge that all of the higher ups won't still be around if a merger occurs. The fat gets eliminated. Jobs get cut. I could see Bellator staying at Spike and PBC staying at Showtime since they pay for boxing. But with Espinoza talking to Top Rank who knows how much budget will be there for PBC at Showtime. As for CBS they haven't paid for one single fight in decades. They didn't go into their budget for Thurman-Porter. Provide some proof of that. I will wait. Digging further into that. How many other CBS fights have you seen this year (paid by PBC or by Showtime). That will show you how dedicated they are too boxing. Not very. Les Moonves is the Chairman/President/CEO of CBS Corp, and he's on board with boxing (was instrumental in bringing Floyd on board, put his loathing or Arum aside to make Mayweather-Pacquiao, etc). This isn't AOL/TimeWarner, when the person with interest in wrestling got pushed out, leaving the folks with no interest happy to boot it when things turned a bit. Beyond that, the fact that CBS pushed Thurman-Porter across all of their properties, in addition to pushing the fight during commercials on CBS, while also allocating nearly three hours or primetime on CBS (not paid for by PBC) for the fight makes it utterly obvious that CBS stepped up for the fight.

On a scale of 1-10 how fresh are Al Haymon's farts? ^^^ about what I've come to expect from the butt-boys here

I'm not sure pairing up their Bellator events with PBC events proves Spike is content with the PBC content or that they're committed to PBC long term. Spike TV is seemingly in the combat sports business; whether it be MMA, boxing, or kickboxing, it seems like SpikeTV has made combat sports a core focus of their product. Maybe it's just me, but I doubt that SpikeTV will ever go to Golden Boy or Top Rank to lock-in their boxing programming.

CBS apparently dug into their pocket, beyond the money allocated in Showtime's boxing budget, to help put on Thurman-Porter and Viacom has already taken the steps to further integrate PBC into their 'Spike Sports' combat sports programming (built around Bellator MMA, PBC, and Bellator:Kickboxing, as GLORY moved on to a deal with ESPN). follow the money; it's very rare that you'll see anyone invest time/money into building something that they're not happy with. You are failing to acknowledge that all of the higher ups won't still be around if a merger occurs. The fat gets eliminated. Jobs get cut. I could see Bellator staying at Spike and PBC staying at Showtime since they pay for boxing. But with Espinoza talking to Top Rank who knows how much budget will be there for PBC at Showtime. As for CBS they haven't paid for one single fight in decades. They didn't go into their budget for Thurman-Porter. Provide some proof of that. I will wait. Digging further into that. How many other CBS fights have you seen this year (paid by PBC or by Showtime). That will show you how dedicated they are too boxing. Not very.

what "programs?" the main people running those boards acknowledge the Sport of boxing. Or do these broadcasting networks feel Time Warner can do it better and therefore just let them monopolize it in the states? cmon dude, get real they could cut the programming of boxing from one channel and only have on showtime. very possible