Comments Thread For: Ratings: HBO, Showtime Split Audience For Mediocre Digits

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

Not only does boxing fail to fare well when competing against itself, but struggles when competing with other major sporting events.

Bernard Hopkins has never been a major pay-per-view attraction, but the future Hall of Fame boxing legend has always managed to serve as a huge ratings magnet for HBO and Showtime. That dynamic dramatically changed over the past weekend, with his April 19 historic unification title win over Beibut Shumenov on Showtime averaging just 760,000 viewers over the course of their 12-round main event, according to data obtained from Nielsen Media Research.
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[richardt]

What did they expect??? Most fans had never seen or heard of Bebut and after a struggle against another no name Murat, it was bound to happen even if the numbers were higher for Murat. If that card had been any combination of fights between Hopkins/Stevenson/Kovalev, the ratings would have been through the roof. And to think Showtime doesn't insist on some combination of the trio just mentioned, serves them well. Too bad Showtime and HBO wouldn't just drop Boxing until GBP and TR were forced to work with each other to make the big fights. Wont happen but it is a nice fantasy.

[Hougigo]

How often does numbers do good all around?

Recently... I remember Canelo doing over a million against Lopez and JCC Jr/Martinez almost doing 500k

[Cinci Champ]

i got a feeling that this is going to turn into the norm with the way the bad blood seems to have gotten even thicker the last few weeks. With fights on the same nights it seems both are focused more on hurting the other rather then just bettering themselves.

[The Hammer]

Although they have a gem in Shawn Porter, Golden Boy/Haymon/Showtime have a lot of mediocre boxers like Peter Quillan, Amir Khan, etc.

I don't know how they can afford to pay them all without losing money.

[-PBP-]

Hopkins/Stevenson will do a lot better I'm sure

[richardt]

Speaking of Porter, damn that guy has wisdom beyond his years and his dedication to prayer and spirituality and how level-headed he is makes him the tops in my book. One of the good guys of Boxing.

[Brandish]

pac bradley II only 689,000 views what's up with that.

[smoothsmg]

i got a feeling that this is going to turn into the norm with the way the bad blood seems to have gotten even thicker the last few weeks. With fights on the same nights it seems both are focused more on hurting the other rather then just bettering themselves.

I dont mind having fights on Shotime and HBO the same night. More the merrier. I can choose the individual fights I would watch.

Hell boxing overlapped Friday with ESPN2 from 8-10, FoxSports1, from 9-11, and Shotime from 10-12. I was a happy camper.

[Hougigo]

Heads up... this is going to happen again May 24th