Comments Thread For: Kovalev-Pascal Scores Big With HBO Home Viewers

[Weebler I]

It says 1.152M. A great matchup between two exciting top 3 LHWs does less viewers on the same network than a boring headbutter coming off 1+ year of inactivity for a tuneup.

Let me guess, you're gonna tell me Ward is American, right?

I think that was the average, as the article clearly states it peaked at 1.2m?

Not going to say Ward is American, but he was on the scene a lot longer, Kovalev only been on around a HBO a year and a half (Aug '13).

In saying that, another poster made a good point when he said Sho and HBO only do around 1m tops, and that it has been like that for years.

[Barcham]

Good Ratings! Hopefully the Canada PPV Buys did good as well

Undercard ****** but the Mainevent end up being good!

The only problem with HBO and Showtime is that their PEAK/CEILING Seems to be stuck at 1 Million+. The number just haven't grown over the years which is unfortunate considering that they have way more Subscribers now compared to back when Lennox Lewis and Roy Jones Jr was fighting on HBO

But this is great for Kovalev, he is not American but yet he is becoming somewhat of a draw on HBO at least!

Are you guys Boxing fans or Network Fans. I don't get this thing of celebrating HBO Ratings then trying to bash PBC on NBC...but you're a boxing Fans? Are You Sure?

I'm a boxing fan and ratings mean nothing to me personally.

Where they come into play is in advertising driven, network television. The rates they are able to charge per 30 second spot is entirely dependant on the number of viewers they have watching. 1 million viewers on HBO is fine considering the number of subscribers they have. 1 million viewers on NBC which goes into EVERY home in America for free is a drop in the bucket. A network cannot charge sufficient advertising rates to support a show that costs as much as a premier level boxing event costs to produce.

People need to understand that HBO is not a sports driven channel. Most of their subscribers are there to watch shows like Game of Thrones and True Blood and True Detective over the occasional boxing program. Remove boxing from the network and I doubt they would lose 10% of the audience that watches boxing on the network.

[Dr Rumack]

Not bad, considering you had two light-heavies who were neither American nor Hispanic. Not amazing, but solid.

[R_Walken]

Decent ratings nothing special , for me anything above 1.3 for HBO is good and anything above 1.0 on showtime is good.


I like how the same people "real boxing fans " are praising a 1.2 but do their best to minimize the spike rating that did 1.0 for Berto-Lopez. Which did double the numbers FNF usually gets.

I can sense allot of tears when their typing. I have a feeling there's going to be more where that comes from in the coming years.

[MrRolltide91]

so a fight between kovalev and Stevenson would be on ppv?

[Barcham]

Decent ratings nothing special , for me anything above 1.3 for HBO is good and anything above 1.0 on showtime is good.


I like how the same people "real boxing fans " are praising a 1.2 but do their best to minimize the spike rating that did 1.0 for Berto-Lopez. Which did double the numbers FNF usually gets.

I can sense allot of tears when their typing. I have a feeling there's going to be more where that comes from in the coming years.

There is nothing at all wrong with the ratings for either NBC or Spike. I would not have expected them to be any higher and they were actually higher than I expected. But, and yes it is a VERY BIG BUT!!!, even tripling the ratings they received will not make boxing a successful show on NETWORK television. To be truly successful and to make it possible to charge the kind of advertising rates they would need to survive at the production costs they incurred on the NBC show, they would need upwards of 10 million viewers.

And the chances of getting numbers like that on a Friday or Saturday evening are about ZERO.

HBO and Showtime not being advertiser driven, are not dependant on ratings for their financial survival.

[Mitchell Kane]

I like how the same people "real boxing fans " are praising a 1.2 but do their best to minimize the spike rating that did 1.0 for Berto-Lopez. Which did double the numbers FNF usually gets.

HBO costs a lot more than Spike...so 1.2 million HBO viewers are more valuable than 1.0 million Spike viewers.

HBO paid for the Kovalev-Pascal fight. Spike didn't pay for Berto-Lopez.

[BattleAxePurist]

Decent ratings nothing special , for me anything above 1.3 for HBO is good and anything above 1.0 on showtime is good.


I like how the same people "real boxing fans " are praising a 1.2 but do their best to minimize the spike rating that did 1.0 for Berto-Lopez. Which did double the numbers FNF usually gets.

I can sense allot of tears when their typing. I have a feeling there's going to be more where that comes from in the coming years.

So Spike card produced a guy who took the fight on less than a day notice, 2 fat slobs wailing on each other and the main event was 2 past-it gatekeepers looking like 2 shot journeymen.

I've seen those cards on FNF for years were where all those real boxing fans then?

[R_Walken]

There is nothing at all wrong with the ratings for either NBC or Spike. I would not have expected them to be any higher and they were actually higher than I expected. But, and yes it is a VERY BIG BUT!!!, even tripling the ratings they received will not make boxing a successful show on NETWORK television. To be truly successful and to make it possible to charge the kind of advertising rates they would need to survive at the production costs they incurred on the NBC show, they would need upwards of 10 million viewers.

And the chances of getting numbers like that on a Friday or Saturday evening are about ZERO.

HBO and Showtime not being advertiser driven, are not dependant on ratings for their financial survival.

I'll wait and see if it's sucessfull I'm not going to base my opinion on an emotional fan pulling imaginary numbers and sucess formulas out of the air to prove their point

HBO costs a lot more than Spike...so 1.2 million HBO viewers are more valuable than 1.0 million Spike viewers.

HBO paid for the Kovalev-Pascal fight. Spike didn't pay for Berto-Lopez.

Honestly this is just jib-jab I'm talking about numbers and a prime HBO fighter did 1.2 and a b class PBC event did 1.0 I don't really get what your saying

So Spike card produced a guy who took the fight on less than a day notice, 2 fat slobs wailing on each other and the main event was 2 past-it gatekeepers looking like 2 shot journeymen.

I've seen those cards on FNF for years were where all those real boxing fans then?

Good job *****ting on the card the funny thing is you were probably 1 of the million that watched. Was it a great card No but for me it was miles better then the typical FNF card and did double the numbers I only watched the Berto - Looez and parts of the porter fight but I was more entertained then a FNF card. But maybe that's me who's rather watch proven fighters with legit resumes