Comments Thread For: DeGale-Jack Drew an Average of 454,000 Viewers on Showtime

[Kigali]

They should've just moved this card to Friday. Instead we got one of the worst mismatches of the last 10 years in Lara vs. Foreman.

Anything going up against the NFL playoffs is going to struggle.

It's a shame too, because it was a great card with great fights.

Naw...they should have put it on PPV like they do over at HBO.

[big_james10]

Its too bad the ratings were so low because that was one hell of a fight.

[Eff Pandas]

Can't use the excuse that the numbers were low because of the NFL Playoffs because this has been a trend of low ratings for a long time now from showtime. 2 years ago they were doing double this and neck and neck with HBO and now a unification fight can't even crack 500k. HBO boxing after dark got under cards with prospects doing 600k or more viewers.

Agree. This sounds like the same bs with HBO's budget. The budget has been dropping since the early 2000's, but for some reason some people are trying to spin it like its something new & has to do with a merger lol.

Showtime Boxing needs to flip something around or try something new cuz they've definitely lost about half their viewers from not THAT long ago & haven't seemed to be able to get them back with good fights that have seemingly been announced well enough to expect more from them ratings-wise one would think.

[original zero]

How the hell is Espinoza still employed?

Because Showtime doesn't care about the public numbers, they care about their internal numbers. Espinoza's job is very very safe. He doesn't have to try to artificially inflate the numbers like they do over at HBO because the boxing heads are always so afraid of getting canned.

I'll give you a few examples of why there is such a disparity between HBO & Showtime boxing numbers, beyond the obvious (which is the fact that HBO is in more homes than Showtime).

#1 - Showtime allows subscribers to watch their fights live on "Showtime Anytime," which artificially lowers the Nielson numbers, but is in the best interest of their subscribers. HBO does not allow subscribers to watch their fights live on "HBO GO," because they do not want to take any viewers away from the Nielson number.

#2 - Showtime aggressively replays their events throughout the evening and rest of the weekend on various channels. Making their fights as easy and convenient to watch as possible, but to the detriment of that live Nielson number. HBO on the other hand will have that Sunday morning replay, but makes sure if you want to watch Saturday, you have to watch that one airing, refusing to replay in the middle of the night in hopes of beefing up that first Nielson number.

#3 - To make watching fights on HBO GO as undesirable as possible, HBO often waits until TUESDAY to begin uploading their fights, whereas Showtime will quickly get the fights up on Showtime Anytime. Again, HBO's approach inflates that Nielson number, while Showtime's approach reduces it. But showtime is putting the fan first by giving them so many options and making it as convenient as possible to watch whenever and however you want.

#4 - HBO clips their broadcasts and only makes the fight itself, bell to bell, available VOD, whereas Showtime will allow subscribers to watch the entire event from start to finish. Doing this makes it very undesirable to watch HBO boxing any way other than live on traditional cable, whereas Showtime's approach makes it very convenient to watch any time, anywhere, without missing any of the broadcast.

For those reasons and more, the Showtime & HBO boxing numbers can be deceiving. Showtime is doing what is best for their subscribers while HBO is doing what is best for keeping up appearances.

[Kigali]

Because Showtime doesn't care about the public numbers, they care about their internal numbers. Espinoza's job is very very safe. He doesn't have to try to artificially inflate the numbers like they do over at HBO because the boxing heads are always so afraid of getting canned.

I'll give you a few examples of why there is such a disparity between HBO & Showtime boxing numbers, beyond the obvious (which is the fact that HBO is in more homes than Showtime).

#1 - Showtime allows subscribers to watch their fights live on "Showtime Anytime," which artificially lowers the Nielson numbers, but is in the best interest of their subscribers. HBO does not allow subscribers to watch their fights live on "HBO GO," because they do not want to take any viewers away from the Nielson number.

#2 - Showtime aggressively replays their events throughout the evening and rest of the weekend on various channels. Making their fights as easy and convenient to watch as possible, but to the detriment of that live Nielson number. HBO on the other hand will have that Sunday morning replay, but makes sure if you want to watch Saturday, you have to watch that one airing, refusing to replay in the middle of the night in hopes of beefing up that first Nielson number.

#3 - To make watching fights on HBO GO as undesirable as possible, HBO often waits until TUESDAY to begin uploading their fights, whereas Showtime will quickly get the fights up on Showtime Anytime. Again, HBO's approach inflates that Nielson number, while Showtime's approach reduces it. But showtime is putting the fan first by giving them so many options and making it as convenient as possible to watch whenever and however you want.

#4 - HBO clips their broadcasts and only makes the fight itself, bell to bell, available VOD, whereas Showtime will allow subscribers to watch the entire event from start to finish. Doing this makes it very undesirable to watch HBO boxing any way other than live on traditional cable, whereas Showtime's approach makes it very convenient to watch any time, anywhere, without missing any of the broadcast.

For those reasons and more, the Showtime & HBO boxing numbers can be deceiving. Showtime is doing what is best for their subscribers while HBO is doing what is best for keeping up appearances.

[jjsmyth87]

Because Showtime doesn't care about the public numbers, they care about their internal numbers. Espinoza's job is very very safe. He doesn't have to try to artificially inflate the numbers like they do over at HBO because the boxing heads are always so afraid of getting canned.

I'll give you a few examples of why there is such a disparity between HBO & Showtime boxing numbers, beyond the obvious (which is the fact that HBO is in more homes than Showtime).

#1 - Showtime allows subscribers to watch their fights live on "Showtime Anytime," which artificially lowers the Nielson numbers, but is in the best interest of their subscribers. HBO does not allow subscribers to watch their fights live on "HBO GO," because they do not want to take any viewers away from the Nielson number.

#2 - Showtime aggressively replays their events throughout the evening and rest of the weekend on various channels. Making their fights as easy and convenient to watch as possible, but to the detriment of that live Nielson number. HBO on the other hand will have that Sunday morning replay, but makes sure if you want to watch Saturday, you have to watch that one airing, refusing to replay in the middle of the night in hopes of beefing up that first Nielson number.

#3 - To make watching fights on HBO GO as undesirable as possible, HBO often waits until TUESDAY to begin uploading their fights, whereas Showtime will quickly get the fights up on Showtime Anytime. Again, HBO's approach inflates that Nielson number, while Showtime's approach reduces it. But showtime is putting the fan first by giving them so many options and making it as convenient as possible to watch whenever and however you want.

#4 - HBO clips their broadcasts and only makes the fight itself, bell to bell, available VOD, whereas Showtime will allow subscribers to watch the entire event from start to finish. Doing this makes it very undesirable to watch HBO boxing any way other than live on traditional cable, whereas Showtime's approach makes it very convenient to watch any time, anywhere, without missing any of the broadcast.

For those reasons and more, the Showtime & HBO boxing numbers can be deceiving. Showtime is doing what is best for their subscribers while HBO is doing what is best for keeping up appearances.

Sounds great but without having any real numbers to compare the replays and the on demand and streaming services of each company what you said is just pure speculation and is probably not true besides hbo having more subscribers. Even on that part i dont think it makes a big difference because if showtime boxing was better then boxing fans would get showtime and watch the fights which would make the overall subscriber number meaningless when talking about why hbo is so dominant over showtime. My theory could be wrong too but i think mine is probably much more true than yours but again without any hard data to back it up our theories are pretty meaningless. So the bottom line is hbo and the hulmamaniacs are running wild on showtime

[Mil Muertes]

Can it be that more people are streaming it free? The free streams have gotten alot better one the years.

[original zero]

JJ -

What I said is not speculation. Now how big of an impact it has? That you could speculate on. But it having a noticeable impact at all is common sense. The "slide" in Showtime ratings perfectly coincides with the live stream being added to Showtime Anytime. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out there's a correlation.

HBO takes every step possible to boost that initial Nielson # and Showtime takes every step possible to make their fights easily accessible, which decimates the Nielson #.

[DoktorSleepless]

I post ratings for informational purposes. When a **** fight does bad ratings, I'll laugh at it. If this thread was about the Lara-Foreman ratings, have at it. I just don't get why you have bad things to say when Showtime is not only putting up great fights on paper, but fights that are delivering in the ring. That should be celebrated, even if the ratings are low.

Every time a fight like lara foreman or broner granados gets made, not only does an angel lose its wings but boxing fans start watching UfC instead, never to return. Slowly but surely haymon ran boxing damn near into the ground

They should've just moved this card to Friday. Instead we got one of the worst mismatches of the last 10 years in Lara vs. Foreman.

Anything going up against the NFL playoffs is going to struggle.

It's a shame too, because it was a great card with great fights.

Fun fact: Lara-Foreman averaged 528k viewers.

It's the 4th highest viewed fight on "free" cable since the start of 2016. And with a 0.16 rating for the 18-49 demographic (the rating advertisers care about), it's the 3rd highest. Only beaten by Broner and Garcia fights.

Also, Lara-Vanes 2 remains the second highest viewed Showtime fight since 2016. Will probably stay that way till Broner-Granados.

[HeroBando]

Fun fact: Lara-Foreman averaged 528k viewers.

It's the 4th highest viewed fight on "free" cable since the start of 2016. And with a 0.16 rating for the 18-49 demographic (the rating advertisers care about), it's the 3rd highest. Only beaten by Broner and Garcia fights.

Also, Lara-Vanes 2 remains the second highest viewed Showtime fight since 2016. Will probably stay that way till Broner-Granados.

Dude those numbers are shocking. That wouldn't be top 4 on FNF a few years back. But I guess your argument is Lara is not as radioactive as it seems, ok