HBO losing subscribers... Boxing getting cut?

[snoopymiller]

Any sources of the losing subscribers?

You didn't read the post... said that if HBO pulls back on boxing spend but feels no loss in subscribers... they will likely cut boxing altogether as nobody cares about it.

[saintpat]

This isn't an HBO-Showtime thing.

It isn't a boxing thing.

It's a cord-cutter thing.

ESPN is losing roughly half a million subscribers per month at the latest rate. Fox Sports is losing about a quarter of a million.

Speculation is that ESPN will either be opting out or dramatically bidding lower next time is contracts for NFL, NBA and MLB come up.

[.:: JSFD26 ::.]

This isn't an HBO-Showtime thing.

It isn't a boxing thing.

It's a cord-cutter thing.

ESPN is losing roughly half a million subscribers per month at the latest rate. Fox Sports is losing about a quarter of a million.

Speculation is that ESPN will either be opting out or dramatically bidding lower next time is contracts for NFL, NBA and MLB come up.

Cable TV slowly becoming obsolete. I wonder what all those companies will do once it comes true.

[ironmt]

Cancelled my Hbo subscription last Friday do to the lack of boxing and went with Showtime In order to catch the Frampton/Santa Cruz rematch.

[Eff Pandas]

Sponsors will be very unhappy.

UFC has tons of high paid ones that help market them. Not gonna happen if they move to HBO compared to free TV and regular cable networks.

I'm sure HBO could make it worthwhile if that is a legit issue. Also lets not forget the Fox deal only has 4 fights a year on Fox & the rest of the shows are on Fox Sports 1 or 2 so its not like it'd be a huge problem. So a deal with HBO would likely mean 4-6 shows a year on HBO with a dozen+ on TNT, Tru TV or some sister network of HBO that has more access to non-premium cable audiences. Or hell Time Warner owns a piece of Hulu so they might even try to throw some fights on Hulu too to try to boost that market with some live sports as I suspect is going to be happening more & more.

I think its far too early to say what these new UFC owners have in store, but I know they are gonna be thinking bigger. And to me that says premium cable & HBO is the king of premium cable & I suspect even linking the UFC to HBO PPV would help make their PPV audience grow as well. HBO does great side programming for PPV boxing & I suspect they'd do equally as well with PPV MMA.

[Eff Pandas]

Cable TV slowly becoming obsolete. I wonder what all those companies will do once it comes true.

I think HBO has shown us what will happen with many networks. They'll make a live streaming app like HBO has. The bigger ones will be able to do on their own. Most will probably team up with other networks. I do think cable TV is still gonna be around for awhile doe. I mean TV killed the radio more or less, but radios aren't obsolete. And I'd even argue that radio market just pivoted a lil bit too with internet radio & "the new radio" podcasts. So idk that cable is going anywhere, but for sure streaming via internet devices (phones, computers, pads) will become the new main entertainment source for people who formerly lived & died with cable. Thats my theory anyways, we will obviously see.

[original zero]

It doesn't make sense praying for HBO to disappear from boxing.

Can't imagine PBC/SHO being able to accommodate all these fighters when Haymon's own fighters are now fighting once a year.

HBO giving up on boxing would be the best thing that's ever happened to US boxing. We'll finally have one clear cut dominant league for boxing like the NFL/NBA/MLB/NHL.

Any big fight the public ever wants to see would be guaranteed to happen. No more spreading the top fighters cross several warring factions or rarely/never work together.

It would be a GREAT thing for boxing fans if PBC eventually becomes the boxing equivalent of the NFL.

[snoopymiller]

I'm sure HBO could make it worthwhile if that is a legit issue. Also lets not forget the Fox deal only has 4 fights a year on Fox & the rest of the shows are on Fox Sports 1 or 2 so its not like it'd be a huge problem. So a deal with HBO would likely mean 4-6 shows a year on HBO with a dozen+ on TNT, Tru TV or some sister network of HBO that has more access to non-premium cable audiences. Or hell Time Warner owns a piece of Hulu so they might even try to throw some fights on Hulu too to try to boost that market with some live sports as I suspect is going to be happening more & more.

I think its far too early to say what these new UFC owners have in store, but I know they are gonna be thinking bigger. And to me that says premium cable & HBO is the king of premium cable & I suspect even linking the UFC to HBO PPV would help make their PPV audience grow as well. HBO does great side programming for PPV boxing & I suspect they'd do equally as well with PPV MMA.

I doubt it... Fox needs sports content and will bid accordingly. HBO is a dead issue for UFC.

They make 10,000X more on original programming than sports so it would be ****** to spend $100 million+ annually on any sport.

[BrometheusBob.]

Oh gee I've never heard anything like this before

I guess if people just keep saying it will go down, eventually they will be right

[snoopymiller]

HBO giving up on boxing would be the best thing that's ever happened to US boxing. We'll finally have one clear cut dominant league for boxing like the NFL/NBA/MLB/NHL.

Any big fight the public ever wants to see would be guaranteed to happen. No more spreading the top fighters cross several warring factions or rarely/never work together.

It would be a GREAT thing for boxing fans if PBC eventually becomes the boxing equivalent of the NFL.

Can't disagree with that...

It's like boxing fans don't understand that this basic, simple premise.