Comments Thread For: Showtime Sports Head: We Are The Market Leader, NOT HBO!

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

Showtime Sports head Stephen Espinoza believes his network has clearly established itself as the market leader when it comes to boxing programming. Unfortunately, 2016 has been full of mismatches and lackluster pay-per-view events. All of the pay-per-view events in 2016 - with the exception of one - have been backed by HBO.
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[HeroBando]

Subscriber surveys? How about you look at the ratings lol. Their best rating this year was **** for Fnf 5 years ago.

But this is the gist, his boss retires and it's bye Sho boxing

My supervisors [including CBS Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Leslie Moonves] are boxing fans. The commitment to the sport has never wavered

[Mr. 29K]

I subscribed 'cause of Abner Mares. Mares is the reason why Showtime will blow up soon.

[PACnPBFsuck]

HBO did their boxing fans a huge disservice in 2016, and I swear that they don't care anymore about boxing, they're starting off the year, by announcing a PPV before the year is over, disgusting.

[HeroBando]

HBO did their boxing fans a huge disservice in 2016, and I swear that they don't care anymore about boxing, they're starting off the year, by announcing a PPV before the year is over, disgusting.

It's cause they got guys that command way more money than a network can pay.

[AddiX]

He says this on a monthly basis, why is this newsworthy?

HBO has been garbage this year but Showtime has little to brag about.

[PACnPBFsuck]

It's cause they got guys that command way more money than a network can pay.

That's true, but they didn't host Loma vs Walters until Canelo got hurt, that fight didn't require a crazy amount.

But I believe this is them doing the same the thing cellphone providers are doing by making people pay full price instead of the subsidize price we were used to.

Even though we're subscribed, they want us to fork up and pick up the tab as well.

[AddiX]

That's true, but they didn't host Loma vs Walters until Canelo got hurt, that fight didn't require a crazy amount.

But I believe this is them doing the same the thing cellphone providers are doing by making people pay full price instead of the subsidize price we were used to.

Even though we're subscribed, they want us to fork up and pick up the tab as well.

That doesn't make any sense, hbo isn't making any kind of big money on these ppv fights, and promoters are losing money on them.

The promoters promised these guys big money to sign them. So now to get that money they need ppv because hbo won't fork it over anymore.

Hbo and Showtime forked over the money in the past because they had big ppv sellers to cover the cost. Without the big ppv sellers, the market is all screwed up, showtme has dropped their pay rates substantially as well as PBC.

It's not just hbo.

[Eff Pandas]

They have a sorta kinda argument for sure cuz with HBO PPV I think HBO overall is showing the fights more people are interested in, but if you look at the non-PPV fights while Showtime's schedule has been slim HBO has been putting on garbage fight after garbage fight on regular HBO this year.

I still contend boxing is on the way out at HBO. I keep hearing people saying boxing is in HBO's DNA + people keep acting like this budget thing is a new thing when its a fact their budget has been reduced year after year since the early 00's so there is a trend going on not just some company strategy to look more attractive or whatever for AT&T, but I think HBO is innovative & competing with bigger dogs than Showtime so they are going to need to drop boxing, bring in a more popular sport or switch something up. All those HBO dip****s do is tell me how bs their fights are like 50% of the time.

I suspect HBO will be in the battle for UFC's TV deal vs Fox in a couple years. And **** man I wouldn't be surprised if Netflix jumps in there to & I won't be surprised when boxing is on Hulu, Netflix or some other streaming network in the coming years. Things they are a changing folks.

[TheCell8]

If HBO's boxing budget keeps decreasing it's not going to be pretty...