Comments Thread For: Showtime, Premier Boxing Champions Finalize New 3-Year Deal

[N/A]

Are you a boxing fan?

No.

Or
Just a Al Haymon PBC Showtime fan

I admire what Al has done, but I'm not a boxing fan, so it's hard to say I'm a PBC fan.

You should want ESPN HBO to win always predicting doom n gloom

The best thing for US boxing would be a dominant league with one recognized champion per weight class, with far fewer weight classes. PBC is the best chance for that to happen. HBO getting pushed out of the business increases the chances of that happening.

I just wanna see good fights on any platform
Smh

As you should, but the problem is that when you have too many strong platforms, most of the best fights become politically impossible.

Was the merger of the NFL and AFL good for football fans or would you prefer more platforms? Was the merger of the NBA and ABA good for basketball fans or would you prefer more platforms?

The more leagues you have, the more spread out the talent is, and the smaller chance there is of the best fighting the best.

PBC has all of the best welterweights except Crawford and all of the belts except the WBO. TR has Crawford and the WBO. Fans would like to see Spence vs Crawford, Thurman vs Crawford, Porter vs Crawford, Garcia vs Crawford, etc and they're not going to get any of those fights.

If TR went out of business, you'd get all of those fights. If the WBO wasn't recognized, Arum would be forced to move Crawford into a mandatory position in one of the other three orgs, forcing Crawford to face a top welterweight.

Competition is good in every industry EXCEPT SPORTS. Fans want the best vs the best and you can't have that with four different leagues with four different rosters with four different champions who rarely face each other.

[N/A]

Your post are soo biased against HBO and Top Rank its unreal

It's not bias. It's reality. I loved HBO boxing as much as anybody for decades. But it's dying now and US boxing will be better off when HBO pulls out of boxing. It's inevitable and when I was saying it years ago, some of you said I was crazy, but most of you are finally accepting that HBO boxing is on its last legs.

In a few years streaming will be the normal way to view boxing

I hope you're right. I work with DAZN and I would love for them to do well.

Don't worry about Arum his company is flourishing
Check the ttendance at these Pbc shows

Wilder did over 14,000 his last fight. What did Crawford do his last fight?

[LCRUMMY36]

hbo messed up their own brand by only pushing european fighters.

this is so true......

[BennyBlanco]

Think of it this way, say there are 8-10 main fox channel shows in a year (slightly less than one a month) uncle Al has plenty of good fighters to fill the rest of those dates. But Fox is paying a bigger deal so of course they want priority on the best say 5-6 of those fights for network television. Showtime will likely get a good fights, but they aren't going to get the fights they were putting on CBS. Those will go to Fox. That's the scuttle. Seems really reasonable if your Haymon, your big bad best non PPV fights you want in 100 mln households. That's a huge carrot to the fighters. If Fox is going to cross promote as Dan has indicated in his article, you aren't cross promoting Sergio Mora, your cross promoting Errol Spence and the Charlos, Wilder, etc. Fox is using other assets which Showtime doesn't have (like the NFL and Nascar) like they did with the UFC.

Fox is not paying more than Showtime. Fox paying much less than Showtime. If Fox was paying more, they would be announcing their deal first. But Fox has to wait until next week, and their deal will be announced during a showtime fight week lol

[BennyBlanco]

Dates? Lol
Haymon wins a how?
If you have no opponents to fight what does all those dates mean?
Tank...
Errol Spence can't get any fights or dates

HUH? Spence has fought twice this year and is looking for a third in December...might push it to January, but 3 fights in 13 months is perfectly reasonable at a championship level.

[BennyBlanco]

Few things. Your right could be in the neighborhood of 6-8, I'm hearing 8-10 based on add buys but your right could be 6. Difference with UFC is Al does WAY less PPV. Dana is running a PPV a month and that ****** the life out of the network shows. Al will do some PPV, he will have to but not one a month. FS1 cards I'd guess will improve vs what they were doing when PBC was buying airtime (I would make them if I was Fox and I'm paying a rights fee). So your right, Showtime and FS1 will have fights that are similar to what we have seen on Showtime but with more dates, probably some lessor fights on FS1 but overall better than what's been on there. Lastly, I would SERIOUSLY doubt showtime is paying more. I'd guess it's same (basically there boxing budget went to Al anyway). No way CBS is shelling out more money now with Viacom problems. But still a huge win for Al because he formalizes it vs. a handshake so his investors have to be happy because it creates real value and certainty of revenue (for the fighters too). I hear Fox is paying a real rights deal (my guess is your 45-50 number is close enough) AND Fox covers all the expenses and shoulder programming. That's a huge win for PBC (and Fox for that matter, I mean let's say they are paying $50, that's signifcantly less than UFC and the numbers are comparable to better depending on fight quality).

Showtime has Viacom problems? How so? They are completely separate companies.

Fox is paying $20M. SHowtime 2-3 times that much. 20 fights per year on FS1 costs nothing. Fox pays peanuts for FS1. It's filler.

[KTFOKING]

Forget HBO. Everywhere else, numbers are on the rise, particularly in the demos sponsors care about.

Even SHO numbers are down from what they were four or five years ago. It just goes for EVERY channel. Except NBA ratings on certain networks have increased during that span. The hard part about this is with SHO allows you to watch the fight live on the app or the website. Nielsen ratings don't account for that.

18-34 demos do bring in good ratings for boxing indeed.

[BennyBlanco]

Let's see besides Tevin Farmer
Big Baby Miller
Jesse Vargas
Amir Khan
Wait for these fighters to join soon
Mikey Garcia Manny Pac

Miller and Vargas are not elite fighters.
Khan is washed and a joke.
Mikey isn't signing with DAZN. That's just Hearn's wet dream.

[Butch.McRae]

I work for several promoters. Some of whom used to work for PBC. I don't work for Showtime, but I used to. I'm not a lawyer and I don't have an MBA, but I've worked full time in boxing/wrestling/MMA since the 90s and float from group to group, whoever is paying.

It's in my personal interest right now for DAZN to be a slam dunk hit and for PBC to fail, but much to the dismay of others, I am not paid to shill on this site. On this site, I am paid to explain how the business works. So I offer what I can about what PBC's plans have been, even if I don't personally profit from their plans.

Much respect for the honesty. I do enjoy the posts from your account. Keep it up! I like to get the professional takes on the happenings in the sport. Some of these "writers" are just plain awful.

[Manlikefemi]

Boxing popularity and ratings are on the rise since 2015.

I said Mayweather-Pacquiao, that was HBO's main reason for staying in the sport and investing in both Floyd and Manny after De la Hoya retired.

Boxing Viewership is crap apart from Wilder. Majority is under 800K. It does make me think how much Wilder would do on HBO though or CBS given he got 1.2M for both Ortiz and Stivrene 2 on Showtime.

PPV is dead in this country, and majority of boxing cards get rubbish viewership. Let's be truthful