Comments Thread For: Showtime's Espinoza Says Piracy Is Depressing PPV Buys By At Least 30-40%

[ShoulderRoll]

Even when ppv undercards are good people still don't buy the ppvs.

What PPV undercards have been good? There have only been 2 or 3 in the past 10 years I bet.

The fanbase has been conditioned to NOT expect a good card anymore and to not show up until the main event. It’s probably going to take years of consistently solid undercards to undo that conditioning.

[SimpleTouchee]

What PPV undercards have been good? There have only been 2 or 3 in the past 10 years I bet.

The fanbase has been conditioned to NOT expect a good card anymore and to not show up until the main event. It’s probably going to take years of consistently solid undercards to undo that conditioning.

Spence vs Porter, Charlo vs Rosario, Mayweather vs Berto, Mayweather vs Canelo undercards

[Liondw]

He has some point, business wise, but most PPV fights have been overpriced. The undercards have been pretty awful, almost always.

A number of mediocre matchups that were on PPV never should've been. There is the rare super fight that does indeed live up to the hype.

[crimsonfalcon07]

I've never pirated a fight. But I also won't buy them all. If you throw a weak main event and a garbage under at $85, I'll watch MMA or Muay Thai or grappling for free, or watch/rewatch a past historical fight of known value. My interest in boxing is primarily about what really works and what doesn't in the business of throwing hands. Not much interest in the guys who box to decisions and can't get KO's unless they're doing something interesting in addition, like being very hard to hit (Shakur Stevenson, for instance).

I'm not sure what crowd they're trying to get to with $85 PPVs. Seems really out of touch, but it's entirely possible that the people who won't buy at $85 also won't buy at any price, if the buys from Haney-Loma are any indication.

I'm even less willing to spend my money or time on boxing PPVs when there's just so many corrupt decisions and ref calls for major events. I may not buy Spence-Crawford if they bring in Tony Weeks or Dave Moretti for that match. Those guys are scum.

[paulf]

Y’all remember when Pacquiao-Mosley was so godawful that fans an celebrities were swearing off boxing completely, and when Arum was asked about it being a bad card and a terrible main event, he was like “What are you talking about? We don’t care if it was a good fight or not. Showtime doesn’t care about that. It did numbers and that’s all that matters.”

Here we are a decade later and Showtime is moaning about people not buying PPVs.

[ShoulderRoll]

Spence vs Porter, Charlo vs Rosario, Mayweather vs Berto, Mayweather vs Canelo undercards

So only 4. I wasn’t off by very much.

[uppercut510]

i dont mind paying for the good fights, usually 9 plus of us split it, so its all good

[The D3vil]

This is what you get for making it a PPV sport.

The NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, tennis, golf, NASCAR, and tons of other sports find ways to be on TV without gouging their fans to watch it.

Could you imagine if hte World Series or Super Bowl were on PPV?

I have ZERO sympathy for these idiots who ruined the sport by putting it behind a paywall.

Nick Khan recently talked about this

https://twitter.com/CurtP_/status/16...86?s=20

[Fanofreason]

***** has ruined the economy and broke all these losers that can’t afford $80

[paulf]

This is what you get for making it a PPV sport.

The NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, tennis, golf, NASCAR, and tons of other sports find ways to be on TV without gouging their fans to watch it.

Could you imagine if hte World Series or Super Bowl were on PPV?

I have ZERO sympathy for these idiots who ruined the sport by putting it behind a paywall.

Nick Khan recently talked about this

https://twitter.com/CurtP_/status/16...86?s=20

Yeah he’s mostly spot on here except boxing didnt really run into trouble and start falling off with HBO and PPV, it fell off when cable went digital in early 2000s and people didn’t have the black box anymore.

THAT was the point where all of a sudden the masses no longer had access to the fights.