Comments Thread For: Showtime's Espinoza Not Concerned About Recent Ratings

[whoseyourdaddy]

Dude showtime ratings fell off a cliff 2 years ago when haymon created PBC and took all his fighters to other networks. Now Showtime getting half or a third the ratings they used to get for these same fighters when they come back to showtime. Totally crippled the showtime boxing brand. They go months without any fights because they hitched their wagon to haymon and he screwed them over because if haymon succeeds with pbc it makes showtime irrelevant. Showtime has no stars, and most of their fighters aren't even under contract so they investing in fighters but their next fight could be on another network where they don't reap the benefits. Espinoza let this train go off the rails under his watch.

Showtime's only few times beat HBO was when Canelo was there. with Canelo gone the whole train derail.

[bigdunny1]

Showtime's only few times beat HBO was when Canelo was there. with Canelo gone the whole train derail.

Canelo biggest fights and really built his brand on showtime. No doubt losing him hurt. Showtime lost canleo on Espinoza watch, let the golden boy empire crumble under his watch, lost golden boy after the haymon split , didn't ink up any of haymons fighters so got screwed when he created pbc and took all these fighters to other networks, once haymon made that power move should of reached out and made deals with other promoters to fill in for the fights they lost. Instead didn't want to burn bridges with haymon praying pbc would fail quickly and he would bring all his fighters back. PBC limping around not being successful but punting all these time buys to 2017 keeps showtime in limbo hoping to get whatever scraps haymon throws their way.

That's no way to run a network and prime reason he should be fired. Next guy come in and say hey haymon we need a commitment something in writing with these fighters or we signing up other fighters and promoters and giving them these fight dates. We can't go months not knowing if we have boxing content or not.

[bigdunny1]

I'm with you I think joshua is a game changer. If joshua beats wlad(it would be horrible for boxing if he didn't), and captures the rest of the belts a wilder fight would be massive. Could be a huge game changer, especially if it's exciting. That's the key.

Since Joshua signed his contract with showtime his ratings haven't been good. American viewers don't care about these UK fighter's unless they come to the states and fight. Showtime needs to have something in his contract that makes him fight X amount of fights or 1 fight a year at least in the US if they want to build him into a star. He's big in UK but a long way away from crossing over. Not sure beating wlad does it either.

[al-Xander]

I don't think they're even in the business of building stars. All they just really do is carry random fights. Fights that fans have to recall how they were made. There are no consistent background stories to relate to. Fighters appear, then go inactive for long periods of time. They're not even talking about Jermall Charlo's next opponent, for example, because they're used to it, ie, win big, then disappear. Fact that most of them are now fighting once a year is an indication that things will never improve. There are no stories to follow.

[al-Xander]

Despite its low ratings this past weekend for the broadcast that featured Abner Mares' latest title winning effort versus Jesus Cuellar from the Galen Center in Los Angeles, Stephen Espinoza, the Executive V.P and General Manager of Showtime Sports and Event Programming, is taking the long term approach to things.
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Espinoza: "There's obviously a big advantage in having guys exposed across a range of networks but the downside is that it's sometimes difficult for fans to follow those guys across networks and find out when they're fighting. So as they come and appear more consistently it'll be easier for fans to follow."

It's not so much about consistency in schedules and networks, it's about consistency in activity. It's hard for fans to follow fighters because they only fight once a year. Wins don't lead to anything with most of these PBC/SHO fighters.