The HBO Budget Crisis and What it Means

[Foreign Soil]

Brands need figureheads. The PBC has no one that's going to carry that torch. The closest they have is Broner who is more akin to the next Judah as opposed to Mayweather, as everyone hoped.

[Eff Pandas]

Brands need figureheads. The PBC has no one that's going to carry that torch. The closest they have is Broner who is more akin to the next Judah as opposed to Mayweather, as everyone hoped.

Sometimes it takes a minute to truly brand oneself & to find that face of a company. I'd kinda sorta agree Broner is probably the face of PBC or among them of now despite stronger attempts to make Thurman &/or Garcia &/or Wilder the faces of PBC. I think they should quit trying to force round pegs in square holes with some of these guys & let the fight outcomes & fans decide who's gonna rise to the top & who's not.

[BWC]

Not sure why it has to be WW3 in boxing. Can't A rum and GBP get in on this action and create a more coordinated landscape?

[original zero]

Not sure why it has to be WW3 in boxing. Can't A rum and GBP get in on this action and create a more coordinated landscape?

There was never supposed to be a PBC. It was always supposed to be GBP. Oscar reneged and ****ed up the deal.

[mathed]

HBO sports is going the way of the dinosaurs

HBO cutting budgets and rejecting quality fights, Showtime has like 2 cards a year, PBC is losing half a billion a year. Boxing in general is not looking too good at all and it's because boxers are overpaid, promoters want to protect their investments, and egos are huge.

[Kenny Blankenship]

Nobody seems to want to mention the most obvious problem when it comes to ANYTHING on tv these days. People are cutting off their cable at an alarming rate. They are going to the pirate internet/cable boxes so they can watch everything free.

This means that HBO has fewer subscribers every year. If they are making less money they will cut their budget accordingly. Simple math. But todays generation wants everything for free and then they wonder why HBO won't pay for more boxing or why is their budget being cut.

It's not just HBO, it's rating across the board for everything. PBC can't draw flies, Showtime ratings aren't any good either. People are complaining all their getting is mismatches. It's because the networks can't afford the good fights because there just aren't enough viewers to watch them and make sense for the networks to put them on. Hell, Haymon has gone into a deep money losing strategy to try and corner the market. He may end up pulling it off but even if he does there will be no money left to pay anyone and no network willing to pay to show the fights.

The only way I see the sport staying relevant is ticket sales. Gate driven profit is the only way to go, and maybe independant PPV's done on the cheap, $15 or $20. Top Rank has the ability to do their own PPV's, they've done it in the past.

But it all goes back to exposure. The fights have to be televised. If they fail to get that done they won't sell tickets either. TV is very important for boxing and the biggest surprise to me is that the promoters have abused the networks with mismatches and terrible fights. Now the chickens are coming home to roost, people cut off their cable and get everything free through the internet. I don't see boxing making legit inroads on tv anytime in the near future. Quite the opposite. It's going into the toilet and it lies squarely on the fault of the promoters and the networks for allowing it.

I believe it's too late. Mayweather-Pac was the swan song for boxing. It literally signified the end of the superfight in this sport. There is nothing BIG to look forward to. There always used to be something just around the corner.

There's always hope but I don't see much of that around these days.

[b d w]

Nobody seems to want to mention the most obvious problem when it comes to ANYTHING on tv these days. People are cutting off their cable at an alarming rate. They are going to the pirate internet/cable boxes so they can watch everything free.

This means that HBO has fewer subscribers every year. If they are making less money they will cut their budget accordingly. Simple math. But todays generation wants everything for free and then they wonder why HBO won't pay for more boxing or why is their budget being cut.

It's not just HBO, it's rating across the board for everything. PBC can't draw flies, Showtime ratings aren't any good either. People are complaining all their getting is mismatches. It's because the networks can't afford the good fights because there just aren't enough viewers to watch them and make sense for the networks to put them on. Hell, Haymon has gone into a deep money losing strategy to try and corner the market. He may end up pulling it off but even if he does there will be no money left to pay anyone and no network willing to pay to show the fights.

The only way I see the sport staying relevant is ticket sales. Gate driven profit is the only way to go, and maybe independant PPV's done on the cheap, $15 or $20. Top Rank has the ability to do their own PPV's, they've done it in the past.

But it all goes back to exposure. The fights have to be televised. If they fail to get that done they won't sell tickets either. TV is very important for boxing and the biggest surprise to me is that the promoters have abused the networks with mismatches and terrible fights. Now the chickens are coming home to roost, people cut off their cable and get everything free through the internet. I don't see boxing making legit inroads on tv anytime in the near future. Quite the opposite. It's going into the toilet and it lies squarely on the fault of the promoters and the networks for allowing it.

I believe it's too late. Mayweather-Pac was the swan song for boxing. It literally signified the end of the superfight in this sport. There is nothing BIG to look forward to. There always used to be something just around the corner.

There's always hope but I don't see much of that around these days.

I think you make some salient point but the one thing I can't understand, in despite of everything you are saying boxing is going gangbusters in other parts of the world. Why can it be that Britain is exploding, viewership is surging and they face the same problems as America. Didn't Joshua/Whyte do a shedload of PPV sales?

Perhaps the more interesting question is, is boxing dying in America? We could well see the power base for the sport move over to Europe in the next 10 years, which for me, even as non-Yank would be sad as America is definitely the mecca of the sport.

[-Antonio-]

It does seem like HBO has lost a lot of its interest in boxing and that's a shame.

[wiz1030]

Keep in mind, HBO Sports is putting money behind Bill Simmons' new venture at HBO, essentially the Grantland reboot. That's less budget for HBO Boxing.

[Foreign Soil]

I think you make some salient point but the one thing I can't understand, in despite of everything you are saying boxing is going gangbusters in other parts of the world. Why can it be that Britain is exploding, viewership is surging and they face the same problems as America. Didn't Joshua/Whyte do a shedload of PPV sales?

Perhaps the more interesting question is, is boxing dying in America? We could well see the power base for the sport move over to Europe in the next 10 years, which for me, even as non-Yank would be sad as America is definitely the mecca of the sport.

The English have supported their fighters to a higher degree in recent years and it's not even close really. One thing for American boxing is that the Mayweather interest by in large wasn't out of wanting to see his skills, but to see him get beat. The people tuning in didn't do it for the love of the sport so how many are sticking around to watch now? The Pac/May fight was such a dud, it probably did more harm than good.