Comments Thread For: DiBella: Ratings the Real Reason HBO Airing Less Boxing in 2017

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

Lou DiBella doesn't believe HBO's decision to broadcast less boxing thus far in 2017 has anything to do with AT&T purchasing Time Warner, HBO's parent company, last year. The outspoken promoter, a former HBO Sports executive, is certain that HBO's shortage of live boxing broadcasts this year is the consequence of a decline in boxing ratings in recent years for the premium-cable network. During a recently released podcast with Yahoo! Sports' Chris Mannix, DiBella dismissed the theory among boxing industry insiders who've speculated that AT&T's $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner has prohibited HBO Sports from airing as much boxing as it did even last year.
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[1mb11]

Since Dibella, HBO Boxing has been run by a series of outside-industry people like Davis and Nelson who don't have a clue about boxing. That's the reason HBO has lost its position as #1. Quality has dropped along with viewership.

[Eff Pandas]

LOL if anyone hasn't listened to that Mannix/DiBella podcast I highly recommend it. It was hilarious with how crazy DiBella was getting with Mannix. Respect to both guys & DiBella is usually my guy, but he was off his meds during this interview or something.

Link

http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/dgital-media/boxing-with-chris-mannix/e/lou-dibella-joins-chris-49598344

[Butch.McRae]

HBO is killing it with original content. Boxing simply can't keep up with the ratings and subs created by shows like Game of Thrones or even Insecure. HBO cancels shows that perform better than boxing on average. Without the big money coming in from Mayweather and Manny's PPVs the writing has been on the wall for a while.

Boxing won't be on HBO much longer.

[The Big Dunn]

I tink DIbella makes a fair point that HBO doesn't seem to be too interested in boxing anymore. They have a few stars and Lampley's show pretty much pushes those signed to the network, not the sport as a whole.

I hope they start investing more money into shows but it doesn't seem likely at all.

[Nightfall]

Hbo got caught up in the kovalevs and glovkins and forgotten about the Americans. It has back fired

[Butch.McRae]

Hbo got caught up in the kovalevs and glovkins and forgotten about the Americans. It has back fired

This was one of the problems. Trying to replicate Manny was definitely a huge factor. I think they just didnt appreciate the uniqueness of Manny's career and tried to copy the PR model for GGG and Kov (along with others) but ignored how much of Manny's interest was generated due to his rivalry with Floyd. He was also much more credentialed than any of these current fighters were when he became a star.

But there were other issues too. Haymon didn't make it easy for them by having that large stable assembled. They didn't want to pay to play with him.

[HURTFEELINGS]

WOW, LOOK AT THIS......No one has blamed Floyd or Al yet, I am proud of you boxingscene people

[al-Xander]

Real Time alone would make HBO forget about boxing. It's cheaper to produce, doesn't need promoting, doesn't need to hire hundreds of people, doesn't have to deal with overpaid divas, promoters, and more. And it's getting an average rating of 4 mil viewers.

[The Big Dunn]

WOW, LOOK AT THIS......No one has blamed Floyd or Al yet, I am proud of you boxingscene people

hahhaha. Its still early though.

greenk coming if i could green you.