Live viewer ratings for Cotto vs Foreman plus Khan vs Malignaggi

[mrpain81]

Boxing truth gets to the bottom of it.

http://theboxingtruth.com/article.php?id=1803

[mrpain81]

Nielsen Media Ratings for HBO's Khan-Malignaggi & Cotto-Foreman: The Truth
by John Chavez
Jun 10, 2010 -

Yuri Foreman vs. Miguel Cotto is the highest rated HBO boxing broadcast of 2010. There's no doubt about it.

The only real question I had was regarding the legitimacy of the reported figure. I've never seen a rating figure coupled with it's replay viewership and Foreman-Cotto is the only time I've seen this done.

There's no denying that fight cards that take place in legitimate metropolitan areas that tends to lead to a ****e in viewership.

I'd guess that there are three major effects of staging fights in real cities that lead to more awareness for a boxing event:

1. Mainstream media isn't forced to incur traveling and housing costs to provide coverage of the bout making it financially acceptable to do so.
2. Major boxing events have become such a rarity in major cities, it's seen as a "special" event rather than just a sporting event making it newsworthy within itself.
3. The social media aspect of regular sports fans attending the event which leads a strong "word of mouth" interest due to social networking sites as well as traditional "word of mouth" buzz.

Miguel Cotto vs. Yuri Foreman was a bout that wasn't necessarily considered to be the highest level type of bout broadcast by HBO in recent times. However, it did encompass something that has been lost in boxing for the many years which is the belief in bringing the fight to the people. With Cotto's large Puerto Rican contingent in New York City coupled with the New York Yankees marketing machine assisting in promoting the fight, it created that intrigue that might other wise be lacking had the fight taken place in some non-descript casino located in an even more non-descript city.

Here are the Nielsen Media Ratings derived directly from Nielsen Media for some recent boxing events:

5-14-2010 - ESPN2 - Friday Night Fights - Julio Diaz vs. Herman Ngoudjo - 521,000 live viewers

5-15-2010 - HBO - World Championship Boxing - Paulie Malignaggi vs. Amir Khan - 1.228 million live viewers

6-4-2010 - ESPN2 - Friday Night Fights - Ramos vs. Johnson - 478,000 live viewers

6-5-2010 - HBO - World Championship Boxing - Miguel Cotto vs. Yuri Foreman - 1.6 million live viewers

Is Miguel Cotto vs. Yuri Foreman considered to be the highest HBO broadcast of 2010?

Yes.

Does this number show that boxing is indeed more popular than in years past?

I'm not so sure.

I clearly remember that in 2007, Joe Calzaghe vs. Mikkel Kessler was a fight that was heavily criticized as garnering the lowest rating ever for a World Championship Boxing event. It garnered a live viewership of 1.591 million viewers and the replay generated 252,000 viewers. Combine those two figures and you have 1.843 million viewers.

1.843 is not that different than 1.9.

I guess expectations have definitely changed and what was once considered as a less than stellar rating is now considered king.

These numbers have all been derived directly from Nielsen Media... nothing but the truth and only the truth here at... The Boxing Truth!


truth@theboxingtruth.com

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[Earl-Hickey]

Both fights did pretty well, which is good for boxing.

I'd expect cotto to do more, he's an established star, Khan was debuting in america.

[mrpain81]

Both those fights did excellent for the other ratings HBO has been putting up, 1.6 million live viewers is very good but I don't understand why all the articles were trying to piggy back the replay viewers. 1.6 million is solid on it's own.

[FirePunch]

This is an unfair article . The writer fails to realize that in 2007 both Kessler and Calzaghe were big names .

This Proves boxing is in a much more healthy state considering Cotto was fighting a no name and still pulled more viewers than Calzaghe vs Kessler

[mrpain81]

Chavez is just pointing out that after the Calzaghe vs. Kessler fight some writers were talking about how horrible the ratings were for HBO. It was mostly Thomas Hauser, 3 years later with almost the exact ratings people are praising this card including Hauser.

[boxasmash]

So it was lie when they said Calzaghe vs Kessler had lowest HBO live ratings ever, a big fat lie.

[heat27]

both r great numbers seeing khan was making his debut in america and cotto wasnt fighting a big name guy

[mrpain81]

I think Hauser was talking about the nielsen rating not overall live viewers.

[wazaa.]

Damn, Amirs US debut numbers are very impressive.