Comments Thread For: Paramount Global To Shut Down Showtime Sports; Network Will No Longer Broadcast Boxing

[Southpawology]

This is sad. No more showtime production, al bernstein commentating, jimmy lennon jr introductions, all access.

Into the graveyard of boxing nostalgia with HBO.

Truly sad.

[dan-b]

Your clown take is hilarious.

He may have had some reasonable points, but he has that annoying habit forumites have of trying too hard and playing to a gallery. "Comically bad", "******est take", etc. He just means he disagrees but that sounds less dramatic.

[wrecksracer]

He may have had some reasonable points, but he has that annoying habit forumites have of trying too hard and playing to a gallery. "Comically bad", "******est take", etc. He just means he disagrees but that sounds less dramatic.

yep. Network TV did turn their back on boxing after that Mancini fight. However, moving to cable wasn't what drove boxing into the ground. It was the $80 PPV for any decent fight.

[BennyBlanco]

Your clown take is hilarious. Nobody is paying $80 per episode for Game of Thrones. That's what ran boxing from a popular attraction into what it is now.

You're still missing the point.

PPV became necessary because ad-supported networks ("free" TV, and even cable to some extent) stopped supporting the sport because they couldn't get sponsors to support it. PPV was a symptom, or a result, not the cause of boxing's problems.

If your theory were true, then DAZN would have actually been successful, since for years their promise was no PPVs. But that clearly didn't work, as even DAZN had to capitulate and incorporate PPVs because that's the business model that the greatest number of boxing fans support.

If fans wanted to pay a subscription instead of PPVs, DAZN would run boxing. Instead they failed in the US and essentially pulled out in favor of international focus.

[wrecksracer]

You're still missing the point.

PPV became necessary because ad-supported networks ("free" TV, and even cable to some extent) stopped supporting the sport because they couldn't get sponsors to support it. PPV was a symptom, or a result, not the cause of boxing's problems.

If your theory were true, then DAZN would have actually been successful, since for years their promise was no PPVs. But that clearly didn't work, as even DAZN had to capitulate and incorporate PPVs because that's the business model that the greatest number of boxing fans support.

If fans wanted to pay a subscription instead of PPVs, DAZN would run boxing. Instead they failed in the US and essentially pulled out in favor of international focus.

Promoters offered top boxers more than they were worth, hoping that they could recoup the money with PPV. That's what really happened. If the market decided what fighters were actually worth, they would be getting paid much less. This was all on boxing promoters.

[bchap05]

Ok I agree with you. But deals ending terrible isn’t a reflection of the promoters, it’s a reflection of where boxing is in the sports landscape.

When the networks left the sport, we as fans were fortunate that the cable networks picked up the sport.

But even they changed when boxing was still popular. USA Tuesday night fights got replaced. FNF got replaced.

Now there is soccer, cornhole, high school sports and other things that get stronger ratings on that never were in the past.

Most of those do horrible ratings and worse than boxing: The 34 Major League Soccer regular season matches televised on ABC and ESPN networks in 2022 delivered an average audience of 343,000 viewers

[The Big Dunn]

Most of those do horrible ratings and worse than boxing: The 34 Major League Soccer regular season matches televised on ABC and ESPN networks in 2022 delivered an average audience of 343,000 viewers

Is that actually worse than boxing on TV?

what about all the other sports on?

[rickJen]

You're still missing the point.

PPV became necessary because ad-supported networks ("free" TV, and even cable to some extent) stopped supporting the sport because they couldn't get sponsors to support it. PPV was a symptom, or a result, not the cause of boxing's problems.

If your theory were true, then DAZN would have actually been successful, since for years their promise was no PPVs. But that clearly didn't work, as even DAZN had to capitulate and incorporate PPVs because that's the business model that the greatest number of boxing fans support.

If fans wanted to pay a subscription instead of PPVs, DAZN would run boxing. Instead they failed in the US and essentially pulled out in favor of international focus.

PPV became necessary because fighters/managers/promoters became too greedy.
Showtime is not free tv. You pay for subscription. And not all boxing is PPV.