HBO ratings flop for Ortiz-Thompson

[The Big Dunn]

It's not boxing shooting itself in the foot. First class venues are hard to get this time of year; boxing is competing with NBA, NCAA and NHL. There are limited venues available, so the networks can't always move the cards to more favorable TV dates.

Friday is a terrible idea. Lowest HUT (homes using television) night of the entire week. Nothing gets viewership on Friday. That's where network series go to die.

True on both points. That said, A Tuesday or Friday card for fights of this caliber would not have lost so many fans to the MMA card.

[BennyBlanco]

Why would that be?

Just because they did less than 800K views doesn't mean they didn't make a profit. If they are making profits, then it'd be dumb to expect a budget cut.

Neither HBO nor Showtime ever "makes a profit" on a non-PPV boxing telecast.

The only way they can make a "profit" off a telecast if it's PPV.

[BrometheusBob.]

UFC put Holm and McGregor on the same card. Everything else on that night was sure to do badly. I'm sure no one at HBO is surprised.

[BennyBlanco]

That's not really a bad number imo. There was also a Showtime card, a UFC PPV, and a NBA game on last night.

800K is a terrible number for HBO.

In 2011, HBO's boxing telecasts averaged over 1.2 million viewers...800K is almost a 30% drop.

In 2014, HBO's boxing telecasts averaged 1 million viewers...800K is a 20% decrease.

HBO has 32 million U.S. subscribers, up 2.7 million from the start of last year. Declining viewer totals with rising subscriber totals isn't a good thing.

[Mitchell Kane]

BAD averaged 730k viewers last year according to Dan Rafael, so a number below 800k isn't necessarily surprising.

Ortiz's last fight, against Bryant Jennings, only averaged 616k with a 735k peak.

It's possible these numbers are better than that card, and if so, part of the difference might've been having what I assume was a better ratings opener with Vargas-Ali.

[-Antonio-]

Considering what it was headed up against, who can be surprised? Also did anyone actually think Thompson had a chance? This was another mismatch main event. Boxing has had several of them recently.

[nacho daddy]

He doesn't hate it, only the guys affiliated with the evil black man haymon

yeah and both of you hate whitey

[nacho daddy]

if you want to see a movie wrote and directed by Larry, watch sour g****s, funny movie ala Larry David/Sienfeld style...

larry david is a demonic *** who pissed on a picture of Jesus. I am not no religious nut at all but they is way out of line even for the descendants of the Christ killers who write and act in that show

[nacho daddy]

Considering what it was headed up against, who can be surprised? Also did anyone actually think Thompson had a chance? This was another mismatch main event. Boxing has had several of them recently.

exactly Thompson seems like a good guy but should never have a license to fight. Ortiz shoulda refused the fight

[HanzGruber]

yeah and both of you hate whitey

basing this off of????