Comments Thread For: Premium Strengths - The HBO vs. Showtime Viewership Battle

[Mike D]

Showtime is like GGG and Floyd Mayweather while HBO is like Dominic Wade and Andre Berto.

so Showtime is GGG...even though HBO has GGG?

[Mike D]

HBO's front line stars

- Canelo
- Golovkin
- Crawford
- Lomachenko
- Chocolatito
- Kovalev
- Ward

And Pacquiao if he returns to fight on HBO




Showtime's front line stars

- Thurman
- Garcia
- Stevenson
- Charlo (Jermall)
- Frampton
- Santa Cruz
- Mares

There's also an outside chance Pacquiao could also end up on the Showtime roster for a few fights

[The Big Dunn]

HBO's front line stars

- Canelo
- Golovkin
- Crawford
- Lomachenko
- Chocolatito
- Kovalev
- Ward

And Pacquiao if he returns to fight on HBO




Showtime's front line stars

- Thurman
- Garcia
- Stevenson
- Charlo (Jermall)
- Frampton
- Santa Cruz
- Mares

There's also an outside chance Pacquiao could also end up on the Showtime roster for a few fights

Mike D illustrates the problem. Many fans judge the quality of the network by the names of their stars when instead it should be based on the quality of the fights put on.

Showtime is putting on the better fights so far this year. However, if HBO just gave a damn they could use their resources (and the fact these guys are signed to them) to make Canelo/GGG, Inoue/Gonzalez and Crawford/Manny, 3 fights diehards and casual fans would jump to watch.

[RL_GMA]

HBO doesn't rely on Boxing for their ratings. Showtime can put on the greatest card they've ever put and they'll still fall short to whatever cards HBO puts on just based off the amount of the subscribers HBO has over Showtime. It's a numbers game. The Degale v Jack fight peaked at around 454K viewers which even for Cable TV on a Saturday night is relatively low, let alone it was the 1st major fight of the year. Had that fight been on HBO just off principle it would've had more viewers. You have to take into account not only the people who know there's a fight on but also people who are channel surfing and have HBO and see a Live fight come on. There's a 50/50 chance they're going to watch at least part of it. Even on my end, I don't know anyone who has a Showtime sub and they (along with myself) watch Showtime (and HBO) fights off streaming boxes which is becoming the norm these days.

[.!WAR MIKEY!.]

HBO will always have more viewership, they have more shows that attract more subscribers, game of thrones, etc....they've been building since the sopranos, **** before that

Showtime has shameless and homeland, not even as close as popular

So of course more people naturally have their tv on hbo regardless of weekday

So I don't understand why we battle about boxing viewers between the two

But let's get it clear, for a long time now showtime has had better boxing content

More compelling fights

Floyd shifted the paradigm when he left hbo

That's hbo fault for not giving him more money

We don't need to rely on hbo anymore solely for boxing

Frankly we shouldn't rely on our sport to be on cable premium at all
But that's another story

HBO still beats Showtime in better fights in General.

HBO didnt mess up with anything with floyd, they paid mayweather what he was worth, Mayweather just came along in a great time when showtime wanted to make a power move in boxing so they was always gonna overpay mayweather, mayweather is basically a "Cost of Customer Acquisition" situation with showtime, they knew from the jump they wasnt gonna make money with him and probably lose money if they cant break even but in the long run they was gonna build their boxing brand faster than what they could have, had mayweather not be with them.

and you sound stupid and naive by saying we shouldn't relay on premium cable for our sport, lmfao boxing is not a household sport and probably never will be again. How you expect boxers to get paid without premium cable? LOL you think haymon has unlimited investment money to come out of pocket with? you think spike or espn can pay them million dollar checks every weekend to top talents? You think Primetime networks want to put on boxing where they can only sale "niche" advertisement and make pennies on the dollar than what they could make with their own home brewed sitcoms that are not susceptible to "niche" only advertisement and can make top dollar for the exact time slots? lmfao

Boxing is a huge business with huge profit margins the way it is now, their is absolutely no incentive to try and really change it. The play for network is only about funneling new traffic to the "money page" basically which is "subscriptions" and ultimately "PPV"

[miked85]

HBO still beats Showtime in better fights in General.

HBO didnt mess up with anything with floyd, they paid mayweather what he was worth, Mayweather just came along in a great time when showtime wanted to make a power move in boxing so they was always gonna overpay mayweather, mayweather is basically a "Cost of Customer Acquisition" situation with showtime, they knew from the jump they wasnt gonna make money with him and probably lose money if they cant break even but in the long run they was gonna build their boxing brand faster than what they could have, had mayweather not be with them.

and you sound stupid and naive by saying we shouldn't relay on premium cable for our sport, lmfao boxing is not a household sport and probably never will be again. How you expect boxers to get paid without premium cable? LOL you think haymon has unlimited investment money to come out of pocket with? you think spike or espn can pay them million dollar checks every weekend to top talents? You think Primetime networks want to put on boxing where they can only sale "niche" advertisement and make pennies on the dollar than what they could make with their own home brewed sitcoms that are not susceptible to "niche" only advertisement and can make top dollar for the exact time slots? lmfao

Boxing is a huge business with huge profit margins the way it is now, their is absolutely no incentive to try and really change it. The play for network is only about funneling new traffic to the "money page" basically which is "subscriptions" and ultimately "PPV"

You just exposed yourself as a hbo whore

Why would anyone willingly want a sport to solely live on a premium cable? U have to take risks to expand your audience, and if boxing was such a lucrative business why is hbo cutting back?

Lmao dork

You sound naive and a fanboy

[Butch.McRae]

HBO still beats Showtime in better fights in General.

HBO didnt mess up with anything with floyd, they paid mayweather what he was worth, Mayweather just came along in a great time when showtime wanted to make a power move in boxing so they was always gonna overpay mayweather, mayweather is basically a "Cost of Customer Acquisition" situation with showtime, they knew from the jump they wasnt gonna make money with him and probably lose money if they cant break even but in the long run they was gonna build their boxing brand faster than what they could have, had mayweather not be with them.

and you sound stupid and naive by saying we shouldn't relay on premium cable for our sport, lmfao boxing is not a household sport and probably never will be again. How you expect boxers to get paid without premium cable? LOL you think haymon has unlimited investment money to come out of pocket with? you think spike or espn can pay them million dollar checks every weekend to top talents? You think Primetime networks want to put on boxing where they can only sale "niche" advertisement and make pennies on the dollar than what they could make with their own home brewed sitcoms that are not susceptible to "niche" only advertisement and can make top dollar for the exact time slots? lmfao

Boxing is a huge business with huge profit margins the way it is now, their is absolutely no incentive to try and really change it. The play for network is only about funneling new traffic to the "money page" basically which is "subscriptions" and ultimately "PPV"

There's is so much wrong with what you've said here, but I had to single this statement out. (check out the image below)




( Link to the source article: http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2017/1/13...ce-boxing-news )

The operating margins were ~6.3%, ~10.1%, and ~8.6% for the years 2014, 2015, and 2016 (first half) respectively. I wouldn't call those huge margins. *Note these figures do not show Net Income (i.e. profit); which also subtracts interest expenses and taxes. So the Net (profit) margins would be even lower.

The premium cable model for boxing isn't terrible, but it is easy to see that there is potential to increase the margins in the business. Which is what likely motivated the PBC investors initially, but as many have said "Boxing is a tough, dirty business, with a lot of old guys stuck in their ways."

[Shadoww702]

so Showtime is GGG...even though HBO has GGG?

It's the quality of fighter/fights. In comparison hbo is putting on PPV Cotto vs. Kirkland while we get Leo/Frampton not on PPV. Don't forget Pac vs. Joe Horn on HBO PPV later as well. The fights on HBO most SUK this year.

[Shadoww702]

so Showtime is GGG...even though HBO has GGG?

Is this your ALT to get back at anyone who laughed at your Mike D85 account??? Wow!!! You REALLY fooled us??

[Shadoww702]

HBO's front line stars

- Canelo
- Golovkin
- Crawford
- Lomachenko
- Chocolatito
- Kovalev
- Ward

And Pacquiao if he returns to fight on HBO




Showtime's front line stars

- Thurman
- Garcia
- Stevenson
- Charlo (Jermall)
- Frampton
- Santa Cruz
- Mares

There's also an outside chance Pacquiao could also end up on the Showtime roster for a few fights

Too bad 90% of that HBO list you'll have to pay an ADDITIONAL $60-70 to watch on PPV. Even against SHT fighters.