Comments Thread For: PBC on ESPN Averages 799K Viewers, Peaks at 1.1 Million

[Ravens Fan]

I will tell you how bad PBC has been. I cannot stand Teddy Atlas as an announcer but yet it was refreshing to hear his voice last Saturday night.

[Weebler I]

I'm not rooting against PBC, but I'm still going to be real about, you can't spend millions of dollars on events that lose lots of money, and NOT get big ratings out of it.

If the ratings don't go up, than this whole plan is failing, and so is PBC.

I think they can increase ratings if they put on better fights but that just doesn't seem to be the Haymon way, never has been.

[Scipio2009]

It's a lot easier to say 2-3 years than it is to actually do it. At some point, millions of dollars lost, investors are going to say, WTF are we accomplishng here?

Haymon just signed Frampton, he's headlining a fight in Texas, he's never even fought in the U.S. And most people here have never even seen him fight.

What is this accomplishing? Nothing, that's what it's accomplishing.

Waddell&Reed are risking literally 1% of the funds under their management on the boom/bust argument of boxing being viable again on terrestrial TV. Their risking more money than I could even imagine spending in a lifetime, but if they're going to cut and run over 1% of the assets under management, they probably wouldn't have put up the money to begin with.

If W&R are wrong, they lose out on 1% of the money under management and walk away with the rights to about 200 shows and 400-500 hours of fight footage/fight-related content; if W&R are proven right, they instantly become the market leader of the TV rights race for boxing content on terrestrial/network TV (UFC was able to pick up $100m per year for seven years from Fox, and that was with Fox missing out on the countless UFC PPV shows; PBC should be able to command similar or more, if they prove the audience).

Lastly the Frampton accomplishes a ton, if you actually looked at the entire situation:

-Frampton is headlining a show, in a situation tailor-made to draw a crowd (El Paso is almost a Mexican border town, on the same day and venue as Chavez Jr, arguably one of Mexico's biggest stars), fights in a style that the Mexican fans can appreciate, and has been basically matched in a fight that he could look great in), at a time that will give him live primetime coverage (10pm) in the UK [same-day telecast as Quigg-Martinez, to hopefully set up their grudge match to close out the year], in front of an American audience that should be able to draw 2m homes on CBS (setting the stage for a move into the Northeast after fans have been given a chance to see him).

If Frampton flops, he flops; still, he's been given the best opportunity to succeed, in piggybacking off of Chavez's starpower for his own US debut.

[North Star]

fair points, also HBO has double to triple the showtime subscribers, so when both shows can do around 600-700k viewers that maybe considered bad numbers for HBO while its fair for Showtime. of course it also depends on your budget and etc.

Double to triple the subscribers, huh? HBO has about 35 million subscribers, Showtime has about 28 million.

[bigjavi973]

Not true at all. XFL was backed by huge investors and smart business people they aired on NBC to monster ratings to debut and they had a 2-3 year business plan and expected to have loses the first 2 years. Problem is the ratings tanked after their debut and fell every month and they like PBC were dependent on ratings to draw TV sponsors. They didn't have the ratings couldn't get TV sponsors and their product was simply too expensive and they lost more money then expected and that 2-3 year business plan went out the window with them folding after season one.

Investors plan for loses but did PBC investors plan for this kind of loses? The ratings debuted were mediocre at best and have fallen consistently since. They couldn't get any tv sponsors to start and it's almost impossible to expect them now when the ratings are spiraling down. They have to pay millions to the networks to air the show, they pay millions on these bloated fight purses that are far above market price, they pay for the advertisement. No TV sponsors to help pay, they are getting almost nothing at the live gate with tons of stories of how they can't sell tickets and are forced to give tons away and comp tickets each event. They are now added to huge lawsuits. They expected to lose money but did they expect a huge dumpster fire of their money and lawsuits? At some point like the XFL investors they will cut their loses and scrap the 2-3 year plan.

comparing PBC boxing to vince mcmahon's XFL???

[bigjavi973]

LMFAO at "Journalist" Nicole Duva is Kathy Duva Daughter all she post is negative PBC stuff because PBC bumped her month from NBC...Just Saying

But yeah the number could have been better but again stiff competition with the UFC having bigger match ups like Lawler vs McDonald and of course McGregor who has a huge buzz right now. UFC>Boxing in the US right now overall and it is not even debatable so Boxing has work to do. Doesn't help the sport either when so called "Boxing Fans" are even rooting against their own sport

So, anyway, Pacquiao is fighting exactly how I would expect someone to fight with a rotator cuff injury like mine.

— Nicole Duva (@nicoleduva) May 10, 2015

[Outwest Exp 355]

Thurman can't compete with the UFC biggest and brightest star. Not surprised by this number at all.

[Mitchell Kane]

It def did more than 350k but it also was the most marketed event in UFC history. Even though it made a lot of noise, it was unprofitable.

UFC did this because of falling numbers and popularity, they needed a big event to re-establish the brand to fans, creditors, and investors.

Last year was a real bad year for UFC.

Last year was bad, but McGregor is a star and he will do massive numbers as long as he's at the championship level.

That's why shortly after he won they announced he was going to be a coach on The Ultimate Fighter starting in September.

The UFC is cyclical, just like boxing. It needs stars and it needs personalities, and it's lost a lot of them.

[Scipio2009]

They do not have the resources PBC does.

Bob Arum is apparently worth $200m in his own right, has a seemingly fruitful relationship with Las Vegas Sands (Venetian Macau, Adelson), apparently has money relationships in the Middle East (???), and has likely run into people with money over his 40 years of promoting and running in many of these well-heeled circles. You add that he's been the house promoter for TimeWarner (HBO/TNT/TBS/TruTV/CNN), and he's got a viable TV relationship to start the talks from.

No one is saying that Top Rank needed to come to the table with the depth and breadth of the PBC effort, but to sit and cry poverty, in Arum not even trying something within TimeWarner, is a bit much.

[Deevel916]

They made some good points here about what's wrong with PBC.

http://thaboxingvoice.com/is-haymons-pbc-series-set-for-failure-before-it-begins/41807?var=no

In an era of media that gives us virtual connection at any moment’s notice, why does it feel like this promotion was done with the purpose of exclusivity? The actual commercial was pretentious, but that was a directorial decision, and I understand the idea. But the lack of genuine content over the course of 2-3 months is purposeful, but for what purpose.

The presser was a curious event as well. First, the media list was invite only, which was incredibly ******. I’m not challenging that decision because I wasn’t on the list, I make no mistake in judging my own esteem as a “boxing writer.” I think it was a mistake to make the presser invite only because the best workers on the boxing beat weren’t present. The writers and videographers that make us pay attention to a single event or fighter were missing, which didn’t do the announcement any favors.

All of my points tie into one major point. The biggest issue is the “PBC” brand does not have a face behind it. It is a longstanding tradition for a promotion to have a mainstay fighter or cash cow, just as it is practical business sense for a company to get a top athlete to endorse their product.

“PBC” needs a fighter to hoist its flag the way Pacquiao does Top Rank’s or the way Canelo Alvarez does Golden Boy Promotions.

For “PBC” to become a powerhouse they need to adapt to the current state of boxing, but they can’t forget the tested methods that have worked for decades in the sport