Comments Thread For: Lampley on HBO's Exit: I Probably Would Have Made Same Call

[Boksfan]

Well the only reason I had HBO was to watch boxing. Now that they going away from boxing means Imma go away from HBO.
The $13 I was paying for HBO imma end up giving it to that punk ass coward Eddie Hearn and DAZN.
Unless Golden Boy promotions end up going to a new channel that I don't have....
If that happens then I'll give my money to Oscar instead of punk ass Hearn....

I'm sure Oscar wouldn't mind if you suck his nuts too like a good nuthugger you are

[Butch.McRae]

“HBO identity is to be No. 1 and the talent pool tectonically shifted against us over the past few years. Cost of becoming dominant again not worth paying for what research says about viewer impact. HBO identity is to be No. 1 in all we do. If I were CEO I probably would have made same call.”

Translation: We lost all of the talent and it costs too much to bring it back. What drives subscriber growth at HBO has more to do with original programming than combat sports. The days of exploiting underpriced content are over. Now that the boxing content is more reasonably as a combat sport, the content doesn't move growth for our network enough to pay for it in the minds of our executives.


Few takeaways:
1. I wonder how true this would be if they had allowed for on demand viewing across their streaming platforms.

2. A lot gets said about Haymon, but the UFC should get a fair amount of credit for driving up the value for combat sports content. All Haymon had to do was show that the ratings could be similar across all platforms. It wasn't all that risky when you see the averages for UFC on fox and fs1. PBC performed close enough to the UFC in ratings that it justified the new deals we're seeing now.

[Butch.McRae]

I don't believe that. HBO no longer does 2,3-5 million views on its shows. No more Sopranos, Deadwood, etc. Those days are over. The only one that does huge ratings GOT and it only has 6 episodes left. The big fights do better than most of their shows other than GOT and sometimes WestWorld, which its ratings keep falling and for how much the show costs the ratings are not great.
HBO has had big show failure after failure in the recent years.

I recall Lampley pretty much blowing the Tyson ko by Douglas too, as usual talking about something else. Surprised he did not mention Chavez vs Taylor.

I'm glad somebody reads press releases lol

Live airings of shows like Insecure and Ballers are not performing that much higher than boxing content. The difference comes into play when they roll out the "weekly viewing" figures. That's where those shows are outperforming boxing. But it's handicapped because those shows get the streaming views counted with their weekly figures whereas boxing doesn't because its not available via streaming on HBO. The network simply didn't have an interest in investing in the content anymore because they were no longer getting a huge discount.

[strykr619]

I don't believe that. HBO no longer does 2,3-5 million views on its shows. No more Sopranos, Deadwood, etc. Those days are over. The only one that does huge ratings GOT and it only has 6 episodes left. The big fights do better than most of their shows other than GOT and sometimes WestWorld, which its ratings keep falling and for how much the show costs the ratings are not great.
HBO has had big show failure after failure in the recent years.

I recall Lampley pretty much blowing the Tyson ko by Douglas too, as usual talking about something else. Surprised he did not mention Chavez vs Taylor.

You know two more GoT universe shows are coming after right? Westworld suffers from what all sci-fi does now, people are too ****** to follow a plot.

HBO is starting to spend more then what shows are worth now thou.

[MeanestNiceGuy]

All of these ratings and budget experts have emerged. Lol

[nacho daddy]

Everyone that has met Lampley in person says that hes an *******.

yes you right and his idiotic childish comments he would make like...here comes Manny then Bam Bam Bam like a god dam moron. I would turn the volume off. Larry merchant was the best and roy jones wasn't bad

[Sweden2716]

Cancelled HBO this morning with my provider, HBO was only good for one thing boxing.See my HBO Boxing book on ebay with autographs. collectors item rare.

[Removed Now]

What an absolutely selfish windbag this guy is. He showed to the very end that he only cares about his generation of broadcasters careers & now that hes too old,he has no problem with Hbo stepping away from a sport he supposedly loves & yet boxing will likely never again reach the same heights without Hbo. But old Lampley has been 1 of the main reasons for Hbo's downfall,instead of them promoting their biggest boxing stars like Canelo/Mayweather who are also the most proven,highest ratings bringers; they instead let Lampley the good old boy run his own bias sht show,where hypejobs were worshipped for can crushing abilities & they would time & time again allow hypejobs like ggg to cherrypick on their Network which brought shtty ratings.

Boxing was bigger before HBO. Boxing used to be the biggest sport in the country and that was BEFORE HBO. I am so glad. This premium channel monopoly of boxing needed to end. UFC is using the real legit blueprint. If the UFC, NFL and NBA can do it so can boxing.

[pugil1st]

“HBO identity is to be No. 1 and the talent pool tectonically shifted against us over the past few years. Cost of becoming dominant again not worth paying for what research says about viewer impact."

Gee, I wonder why the talent pool shifted against them? If only there was something they could have done... other than being arrogant.

[Hatesrats]

Yo, Lamps... Tell HBO to put you back to work on another series of "Legendary Nights"
(Use all that 1000+ fight archive, Put it to use)