The HBO Budget Crisis and What it Means

[Larry the boss]

Funny thing is if this was a thread about PBC and it's budget crisis it'd be halfway to a dozen pages by now. This is how you separate the boxing fans from the graft.

Exactly.....lol

[Mitchell Kane]

Cost cutting isn't just going on at HBO.

It's been going on at ESPN, and more recently FOX (not just FOX Sports, but reports are that it will include Fox Sports), in part because of the same problems that ESPN and others have had: increasing rights fees and cord-cutting.

Several published reports said the company is looking for up to $250 million in cuts, much of which would come from the buyouts.

Several sources point out that ESPN accounts for much more of Disney’s overall revenue than Fox Sports does with 21st Century Fox. Still, Fox is feeling the same pinch that is affecting other sports media companies, dealing with the combination of higher rights fees and cable industry contraction.

At the same time, Fox Sports’ national channels have not performed as well as promised. While 21st Century Fox executives remain committed to the 2 1/2-year-old Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2, their launches have not gone as smoothly as planned. FS1 has lost more than 5 million homes since its August 2013 launch, although it lost most of those homes in the initial year after its launch. According to Nielsen, the channel was in 89.18 million homes at launch; it’s now in 84.166 million homes. FS2 added more than 13 million homes during that same time period, but executives expected to see even bigger growth. It currently is in 50.801 million homes.

http://m.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Jou.../Fox-cuts.aspx

[The Gambler1981]

HBO boxing is pretty much in a death spiral, cutting cost leads to weaker fights which leads to a worse product. A worse product is not as desirable to viewers which leads to less commitment from management, which leads to further cost cutting thus starting the loop again.

You could see it coming a long time ago, and if they had changed their course back then this could have been avoided. They stayed on the same path and that brought us to here. HBO could still change but what makes anyone thing that given their history they will change.

They aren't the only one with problems, but they seem less likely to adapt.

[about.thousands]

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.

Cord cutting has slowed and Comcast, Charter, and Time Warner added video subs last year.

http://www.fiercecable.com/story/twc...ers/2016-01-04

http://www.fiercecable.com/story/com...ars/2016-02-03

http://www.fiercetelecom.com/story/a...201/2016-02-04

[original zero]

There are well over 10,000 active pro fighters in the world, and thats just the ones who have boxed in the past 12 months. Anyone thinking that "one umbrella" could manage that volume of fighters is just ******, not to mention the regional aspects like the Japanese market, European, etc that likely would not have worldwide appeal.......

c'mon onepunch, use a little common sense. there may be 10,000 active pro basketball players or pro football players, arena leagues, d-league, international leagues, etc, but there is still a clear cut league where most of the top guys go because that is where the most money is.

there are MMA organizations all over the world, but most of the top fighters are in UFC and most people that watch MMA just watch the UFC.

if haymon can establish an elite league in the US, it doesn't mean there won't be non-haymon boxing, it'll just mean that non-haymon boxing in the US will be largely irrelevant.

HBO is going to spend approximately $24 million on fights this year. IF haymon can land a hundred million dollar deal for PBC, or even just 50 million, then he clearly made the right choice by leaving HBO to try to create a bigger pie. once the time buys are up, i don't think it's unreasonable to believe he'll have a decent shot at either fox, disney, viacom or universal ponying up 50 million a year or more for the exclusive rights to his stable.

and the other 9,800 fighters will do whatever they do, but it's not going to matter in terms of haymon's plan is concerned.

[PKing]

c'mon onepunch, use a little common sense. there may be 10,000 active pro basketball players or pro football players, arena leagues, d-league, international leagues, etc, but there is still a clear cut league where most of the top guys go because that is where the most money is.

there are MMA organizations all over the world, but most of the top fighters are in UFC and most people that watch MMA just watch the UFC.

if haymon can establish an elite league in the US, it doesn't mean there won't be non-haymon boxing, it'll just mean that non-haymon boxing in the US will be largely irrelevant.

HBO is going to spend approximately $24 million on fights this year. IF haymon can land a hundred million dollar deal for PBC, or even just 50 million, then he clearly made the right choice by leaving HBO to try to create a bigger pie. once the time buys are up, i don't think it's unreasonable to believe he'll have a decent shot at either fox, disney, viacom or universal ponying up 50 million a year or more for the exclusive rights to his stable.

and the other 9,800 fighters will do whatever they do, but it's not going to matter in terms of haymon's plan is concerned.

Ding ding ding!

Somebody on this forum of idiots gets it!

Haymon doesn't need to control all 10,000 fighters. He just needs to control the biggest pot of money lol

[Mitchell Kane]

HBO is going to spend approximately $24 million on fights this year. IF haymon can land a hundred million dollar deal for PBC, or even just 50 million, then he clearly made the right choice by leaving HBO to try to create a bigger pie. once the time buys are up, i don't think it's unreasonable to believe he'll have a decent shot at either fox, disney, viacom or universal ponying up 50 million a year or more for the exclusive rights to his stable.

$100 million seems extremely optimistic given the current climate.

$50 million may even turn out to be optimistic.

[PKing]

$100 million seems extremely optimistic given the current climate.

$50 million may even turn out to be optimistic.

Hell... anything above what HBO has puts PBC firmly in the driver's seat.

[RSBonos]

$100 million seems extremely optimistic given the current climate.

$50 million may even turn out to be optimistic.

The UFC/Fox negotiations will tell a lot if they pay more than the current $100 million per year or maybe Haymon might have hurt that sport also with his flooding the market with time buy fights.

[PKing]

The UFC/Fox negotiations will tell a lot if they pay more than the current $100 million per year or maybe Haymon might have hurt that sport also with his flooding the market with time buy fights.

Yep! Very interesting time for UFC & PBC!