Why is there no Boxnation equivalent in America?

[Johnston]

British have 24hr boxing channel.

In America, they show girl softball games over Boxing on ESPN. That is how significant boxing is in America.

UK boxing is way bigger

Lol pretty much this.. It's kinda sad

[rickJen]

All these US networks would be absolutely ecstatic to promote their upcoming fights on such dedicated channel for free.

[Pigeons]

I don't know honestly. There are channels dedicated to far more niche hobbies or things then boxing. I've wondered why no one has started one yet.

The UFC gots Fight Pass & is making ~$4M a month for the UFC. The WWE Network has been around a lil longer & is making ~$12M a month. And looking at rumored BoxNation numbers it looks like they are probably making ~$2M a month. Idk how much you need to start such a network or to maintain it so idk what the profit would look like, but it seems like a long time profitable move & if you are making $24M-$144M a year I'd assume you gotta be in profit or will be shortly.

UFC and WWE are more popular than boxing in America. Those also aren't TV channels, they are websites/apps.

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

Does this prove boxing is 10x popular in the UK on a consistent basis?

It’s because back in late 2011 Sky we’re going to basically pull the plug on Boxing as a star product in their portfolio. It’s reputation was pretty low over here, Haye and Hearn had hurt the credibility with Haye-Harrison fiasco on PPV and then Haye made it even worse with toe gate in the Klitschko fight.

At the time Sky had several promoters on the channel, Warren, Matchroom, Hatton and also the odd Maloney card would be shown. Out of these Warren had by far the biggest stable and with Sky making cuts he realised he couldn’t fulfill his obligations to his fighters on Sky anymore. So along with Rainham Steel, Frank launched Boxnation as a independent boxing subscription channel, Frank actually lost a lot of money out of his own pocket on this venture. I give Warren a lot of props for this cause it shows he genuinely cares about the sport.

As Sky now had some legitimate competition, Barney Francis decided to re-invest back into boxing. With Hatton going through some well documented personal problems and Maloney having gender issues, Sky turned to Hearn as their lead promoter and he’s eventually become the exclusive promoter to the channel, this allowed his stable to grow and boxing is now one the main products on Sky again.

Pretty long winded but hopefully this explains how the channel came about.

[Eff Pandas]

UFC and WWE are more popular than boxing in America. Those also aren't TV channels, they are websites/apps.

Doesn't BoxNation got an app to?

But mainly I was speaking on all one sport "channels" (using that *******ly for the WWE obviously) cuz lets be real the idea of broadcast TV is dying & streaming will be the "channels" we talk about real soon.

And there are other one sport channels out there. I mean ffs there are regional sports channels with far more bs sports on them that less people watch then boxing. I believe boxing is as viable as any big money sport in having a entirely boxing channel in the US. I fully expect there to be one at some point cuz there are so many niche channels out there already.

If anything is hindering it in the US its that the marketshare is divided up among too many people. In the UK there are less people competing & less channels to show it on. In the US you got Showtime, HBO, ESPN, the PPV angle when that comes into play, the lesser channels like Fox Sports & Bounce. And the major networks when Haymon has them in play. Plus you got a bunch of promoters you'd have to apease if you were a 3rd party trying to do this too.

I mean there was/is some bs ****** half "FightPass", half PPV type website out there thats been showing boxing for about a decade now I think probably. They just show garbage fights with garbage audio & garbage camera angles from what I've seen of it. So its viable now if that bs site has been around for as long as it has. But I think its just a more complicated thing to setup here then the UK.

[chitownfightfan]

Does this prove boxing is 10x popular in the UK on a consistent basis?

It proves that the powers that be have lobbied to maintain thier stranglehold on the fighters in the states.

Just happens that BN is owned by one of the big power players in the UK.

Just wish Eddie and fwank would make up, and wish the FCC would allow BN to be sold on open US market.

[BigZ44]

I've always said if I win the lottery I am gonna start this, the WBN, World Boxing Network. If there can be a golf channel, an NHL Network and a NASCAR channel and ****, boxing can do it. The problem is that there's no unified body to put it under, where all the team sports have a league that runs it. But still, boxing has the advantage of having no off-season, there are fight all year round. Even if HBO and Showtime etc showed all the big fights, you could still show a ton of mid-tier cards and fights from all over the world on the network. Throw in pre and post fight coverage to big events, talk show type stuff like First Take on ESPN, documentaries, classic fights and live shows with boxers in studio you could easily fill in the rest of the time with stuff boxing fans would want to watch. Like I said, it's my first order of business if I win the lotto, so everybody root for me to get rich

[Kezzer]

Not sure why anyone would want boxnation? It’s not really value for many - hence why it has so few subscribers

[Robbie Barrett]

Boxnation can pick up the rights to American fight cards cheap. It would cost millions for an American channel.

[Robbie Barrett]

It’s because back in late 2011 Sky we’re going to basically pull the plug on Boxing as a star product in their portfolio. It’s reputation was pretty low over here, Haye and Hearn had hurt the credibility with Haye-Harrison fiasco on PPV and then Haye made it even worse with toe gate in the Klitschko fight.

At the time Sky had several promoters on the channel, Warren, Matchroom, Hatton and also the odd Maloney card would be shown. Out of these Warren had by far the biggest stable and with Sky making cuts he realised he couldn’t fulfill his obligations to his fighters on Sky anymore. So along with Rainham Steel, Frank launched Boxnation as a independent boxing subscription channel, Frank actually lost a lot of money out of his own pocket on this venture. I give Warren a lot of props for this cause it shows he genuinely cares about the sport.

As Sky now had some legitimate competition, Barney Francis decided to re-invest back into boxing. With Hatton going through some well documented personal problems and Maloney having gender issues, Sky turned to Hearn as their lead promoter and he’s eventually become the exclusive promoter to the channel, this allowed his stable to grow and boxing is now one the main products on Sky again.

Pretty long winded but hopefully this explains how the channel came about.

I think Setanta Sports failing is what opened the door. They showed a lot of boxing and that attracted a lot of subs. But they bit off more than they could chew trying to compete buying Premier League football rights.