Comments Thread For: De La Hoya Gives Take on The Al Haymon Takeover

[Hougigo]

See, I don't know anything about how the network TV stations do stuff. If 6 million is a decent number, I have to imagine that is really low compared to other sporting events but if that is a good benchmark, I hope they reach that. If they don't make the numbers on a consistent basis, I wonder what that means for the boxers if this Hymen thing goes belly up? Can they go box for other promoters or are they still going to be locked in to those contracts?

6 million is way too much, ufc only does around 3-4 milion.
boxing on nbc last year did 2 million and peaked at 4.

i say it averages 3 millions and peaks at 5 or 6, does haymon got any stars really? im guessing cards with boner and garcia will do better ratings?
also are haymon cards exciting in terms of ring action? i never watch showtime so i can't tell.
it will be interesting to see what haymon's end game is, is he looking to make a big splash on the ratings and get a good licensing fees next year? or is he gonna follow the ufc/wwe model and try to make money on ppv?

I'm going off of what Griesman wrote. And back then 6 million average wasn't enough to keep the Contender on the air on NBC before it got moved to NBCSN and ESPN.

Doesn't matter now because it's a time buy, but if he wants a deal like UFC got, he needs good numbers

[Mitchell Kane]

So when boxing was on NBC in the late 80s and early 90s, Troy Dorsey and Jorge "Maromero" Paez were more relevant than Mike Tyson, Julio Cesar Chavez and Pernell Whitaker?

It wasn't just the early 90's.

I mean, Main Events was putting their young stable that included Rocky Juarez, Juan Diaz, Panchito Bojado, Kermit Cintron on NBC a decade ago.

Here's an example of the ratings they did...

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2003/05/Issue-162/Sports-Media/Final-Nielsen-Ratings-From-Weekend-Sports-Events.aspx?hl=Champ%20Car%20World%20Series&sc=0

"Budweiser Boxing Series"
5/10
NBC
3:30-5:00pm
1.3/4

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2003/05/Issue-163/The-Back-Of-The-Book/Overnight-Nielsen-Ratings-From-Weekend-Sports-Events.aspx?hl=AFL&sc=0

"Budweiser Boxing Series"
5/17
NBC
3:30-5:00pm
1.7/4

Mike Tyson-Buster Mathis Jr. did a 16.9 overnight rating.
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/19/sp...r-free-tv.html

[kej718]

Haymon gets his fighters paid
is bringing fights back to regular TV
His fighters are required to do random drug testing.
Fighters are evaluated after fights to make sure they are healthy.
Seems like he does more good than bad for the sport.

It get that some of the fights will be mismatches (you have the option to not watch, or buy a ticket). If fighters are getting some of the ticket and TV revenue then they will have to face the big names if they want to keep getting paid.


Also I noticed that a lot of his guys are saying they want to fight 3-4 times a year (Broner, Porter, Wilder, etc.). If they can do this than that is even better especially with all of the extra TV dates they will have.

I hope he is successful because it will force promoters to treat their fighters better, or they will leave like Chavez Jr. did.

[Mitchell Kane]

Well what would we consider good? I heard the target is what the Contender averaged.... about 6 million

UFC on FOX reportedly debuted with a 3.1 rating and 5.7 million viewers (peaking at 8.8 million) but has since settled in to significantly to lower numbers, although I think they've seen a bit of an increase recently.

[Mitchell Kane]

HBO is available in 30m homes; NBC is available in over 100m homes. You're critique is quite short-sighted.

If the TV time buy works, a network is going to jump in with a massive content deal, a la UFC/Fox.

Whether it's NBC/NBCSN, ABC/ESPN, CBS/Showtime/CBS Sports, or even Fox/FS1, the next deal is likely going to be, if the project is successful, 12 primetime network TV dates and a weekly boxing series to back it (at a price tag near what the UFC was able to get for their content deal, ~$100m per year).

If you honestly believe that a fighter fighting in front of 30m homes will be anywhere near as relevant as a fighter in front of 100m homes, you're silly.

I don't know why you say "in front of 100m homes", as though that's how many TV's will be tuned in to these NBC fight cards.

They will likely do a fraction of that.

The UFC on FOX events average something like 3.5 million.

But the UFC deal for FOX wasn't even just about getting a few fight cards on FOX, it was about FOX acquiring all of the UFC's programming, which dominates the time and the ratings on Fox Sports 1.

For example, for the FS1 weekly ratings that just came out for the week of February 2-8, 4 of the top 5 shows, and 7 of the top 10 are UFC...and a lot of them aren't even live.

1 UFC FIGHT NIGHT: McGregor vs. Siver (taped) Sat 7:31PM- 9:30PM 119 0.2 308
2 MONSTER ENERGY SUPERCROSS: San Diego Sat 10:00PM-12:54AM 174 0.2 260
3 UFC RELOADED 177: Dillashaw vs. Soto Mon 8:00PM-11:00PM 180 0.2 253
4 UFC RELOADED 177: Dillashaw vs. Soto Sun 8:00PM-11:00PM 180 0.2 245
5 UFC FOX: Gustafsson vs. Johnson (taped) Thu 9:00PM-11:00PM 120 0.2 228
6 MONSTER SUPERCROSS BEHIND DREAM: Ken Roczen Sat 9:30PM-10:00PM 30 0.1 179
7 MONSTER JAM: St. Louis Sun 12:00PM- 1:00PM 60 0.1 176
8 UFC MAIN EVENT: 166: Rousey vs. Tate (taped) Thu 8:00PM- 9:00PM 60 0.1 162
9 UFC UNLEASHED: Women Fri 7:00PM- 8:00PM 60 0.1 156
10 UFC MAIN EVENT 162: Silva vs. Weidman and Edgar vs. Oliveira (taped) Sun 7:12PM- 8:00PM 48 0.1 155

http://awfulannouncing.com/2015/nbcsn-fox-sports-ratings-buzz-february-2-8.html

For the week prior to that (January 26-February 1)...6 of the 7 shows are the UFC:

1 UFC PPV PRELIMS 183: Silva vs. Diaz Sat 8:00PM-10:00PM 120 0.8 1546
2 UFC PPV PREFIGHT 183: Silva vs. Diaz Sat 7:00PM- 8:00PM 60 0.3 550
3 MONSTER ENERGY SUPERCROSS: Anaheim Sat 10:00PM- 1:04AM 184 0.2 373
4 UFC ON FOX: Gustafsson vs. Johnson (delay) Fri 9:00PM-11:00PM 120 0.2 360
5 UFC PPV POST FIGHT 183: Silva vs. Diaz Sat 1:04AM- 2:04AM 60 0.2 318
6 UFC COUNTDOWN 183: Silva vs. Diaz Sat 6:00PM- 7:00PM 60 0.2 279
7 UFC FIGHT NIGHT: McGregor vs. Siver Tue 9:12PM-11:00PM 108 0.2 276
8 INTERNATIONAL FRIENDLY: Chile vs. USA Wed 6:07PM- 7:59PM 112 0.2 254
9 MONSTER JAM: Indianapolis Sun 12:00PM- 1:00PM 60 0.1 245
10 UFC COUNTDOWN 183: Silva vs. Diaz Fri 8:00PM- 9:00PM 60 0.1 244

http://awfulannouncing.com/2015/nbcsn-fox-sports-ratings-buzz-january-26-february-1.html

Look at the last UFC Fight Night on FS1 back in January...it did monster ratings...1.7 overnight, averaged 2.75 million viewers with a peak of 3.162 million.

That's a bigger audience than the highest rated MLB playoff game FS1 had last year.

And it dwarfs the numbers Stiverne-Arreola did on ESPN ("0.7 final household rating and averaged 940,000 viewers" according to Dan Rafael).

Part of the reason is the UFC is extremely strong with the 18-34 year old male demographic, which sponsors covet.

So if Haymon wants a UFC-like deal, the PBC will likely have to deliver an audience not just for the prime time NBC cards, but on the non-prime time shows and as well as on NBC Sports, Spike, BET, etc.

Even with all that, the UFC puts most of their best fights/fighters on PPV's once a month.

[Mitchell Kane]

Also I noticed that a lot of his guys are saying they want to fight 3-4 times a year (Broner, Porter, Wilder, etc.). If they can do this than that is even better especially with all of the extra TV dates they will have.

It sounds good to suggest fighting 4 times a year...it's doubtful it happens unless we're talking some seriously bad match-ups.

But then, perhaps that's why Haymon keeps signing medium and lower level fighters.