Does Anyone Know The Boxing Budget for Sky Sports or BT Sports?

[EasternEuroFan]

I saw some clip of Hearn saying how can I tell Whyte to take 400k to fight on regular Sky when he can make much more on PPV. Okay fair, but why would Sky only be able to give him 400k? I may be wrong with the number I am mentioning, but thought it was around that range. Like would Sky not be able to offer a $3 million license fee for that card where Whyte/Chisora paid 7 figures? Having a $3 million license fee isn't all that much anyways. But if Whyte would only get like 400k, then that tells me Sky would only put up what, a total of $1.5 million for that card?

Really amazing how hard it is to get information on the UK boxing scene. All the purses to the commission are disclosed stateside (Not always accurate) so you have something to go off of at least. And then you get the budget numbers for the networks and what not. For the UK though? You get NOTHING. Not even any rumors of PPV sales. Like what did Wilder/Ortiz do on PPV in the UK? Within 10 days you knew it did around 325k in the states, but crickets in terms of the UK numbers.

Over/under if you had to guess the boxing budget for Sky being $30 million for the 16 yearly cards they put on regular Sky?

I don't think i could guess on a budget but If we take PPV out of the equation and just talking regular fight nights, i'd say it might even be less than $30m. You get the odd decent fight or bigger name on regular fight nights like Khan, Brook but it's usually against a weak opponent with an undercard full of prospects, so i doubt those cards are costing anywhere near $2m on average to put together, not even close, not when the headline act is Ritson fighting for a European title.

But as you say, here they don't disclose purses, viewing figures or anything, so it's hard to get a proper measure of it.

Also i guess the budget has to cover all sorts of things, such as all the broadcasting and whatnot, so who knows. But i think the money available for purses on the non PPV events is not a huge amount, judging by what the regular cards usually are.

People can say British boxing is booming, and it is in some ways, but the regular PBC cards and some others are much better than your average Sky card on a saturday.

[KTFOKING]

I don't think i could guess on a budget but If we take PPV out of the equation and just talking regular fight nights, i'd say it might even be less than $30m. You get the odd decent fight or bigger name on regular fight nights like Khan, Brook but it's usually against a weak opponent with an undercard full of prospects, so i doubt those cards are costing anywhere near $2m on average to put together, not even close, not when the headline act is Ritson fighting for a European title.

But as you say, here they don't disclose purses, viewing figures or anything, so it's hard to get a proper measure of it.

That's what I figured. I mean even title fights made to be on regular Sky get put on some PPV undercards. And if Sky has a budget under $30 million, then you have to think BT Sports may not have one of even $20 million?

I remember when Hearn bid like $2 million for Degale/Dirrell. Was that fight being talked about being on PPV if it took place int he UK or it never got to that point?

[EasternEuroFan]

That's what I figured. I mean even title fights made to be on regular Sky get put on some PPV undercards. And if Sky has a budget under $30 million, then you have to think BT Sports may not have one of even $20 million?

I remember when Hearn bid like $2 million for Degale/Dirrell. Was that fight being talked about being on PPV if it took place int he UK or it never got to that point?

My guess is they would've made it PPV and made a good undercard out of it. I mean, they had Brook v Gavin on PPV, but with a pretty stacked card, so i'd imagine they would have no qualms about Dirrell v DeGale on PPV haha.

As for BT Sports, i have no idea how much they're looking at investing in boxing or if they have a particular amount of fights they want to put on per year. I'd guess it's less than Sky though and like Sky, they will put any remotely big fight on PPV i.e Warrington v Frampton.

I think that's just the way it is in the UK now. With PPV's being only £20, i think they can get away with it more and no longer feel the need to put the big fights on regular subscription. Look at DeGale v Eubank, that's PPV too.

[KTFOKING]

People can say British boxing is booming, and it is in some ways, but the regular PBC cards and some others are much better than your average Sky card on a saturday.

Yeah, but like those PBC/SHO cards, those on average had some huge license fees for a non-PPV card. Supposedly they had a budget of $50 million last year and they put on 11 non-PPV cards, so on average you can see what they got for each card. That's why you can have one card with Gervonta Davis/Jermall Charlo/Adrien Broner/Jessie Vargas on it. Hard to do that on Sky if they have a budget for less than $2 million a card.

Boxing is booming in the UK in terms of the fan turnout and just how much you guys support boxing in general. America is obviously MUCH bigger than the UK, yet good legitimate fights here don't even put 10k in the stands. Opposed to in the UK where you guys sell damn near every decent event. It isn't booming in terms of how much is invested in the sport by the networks.

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

I've tried to google this but nothing popped up and I've never seen Hearn or Warren in any interview mention the budget of these two networks. Does anyone know or have a baseline idea of what the boxing budgets are for these two networks? Because it is clear any decent/good match up gets put on PPV in the UK. It baffles me how at this point in their careers, how Eubank Jr/Degale is PPV.

Then my next question is, do you need to subscribe to Sky Sports or BT Sports to buy their PPVs? If not, then no point of even subscribing to those two networks if you do so just for boxing, right? I know the EPL comes with Sky Sports and that is the main reason for folks to subscribe to it. And I'm also aware Eubank Jr/Degale is on ITV.

Despite what narrative we are spun over here. There isn’t much money in British boxing, hence the reason every somewhat saleable fight is put on PPV. The likes of Sky and BT don’t pay fee’s anywhere near the amount Showtime do and HBO did. That’s why there is so much more quality boxing on premium subscription television in the US. I’d predict Sky and BT both have minuscule budgets for boxing compared to what is allocated for other sports like football.
ITV could potentially have a huge budget, due to advertisement revenue, but it’s highly unlikely they will invest that budget into boxing, and the fact DeGale-Eubank is PPV reaffirms that.

[KTFOKING]

My guess is they would've made it PPV and made a good undercard out of it. I mean, they had Brook v Gavin on PPV, but with a pretty stacked card, so i'd imagine they would have no qualms about Dirrell v DeGale on PPV haha.

As for BT Sports, i have no idea how much they're looking at investing in boxing or if they have a particular amount of fights they want to put on per year. I'd guess it's less than Sky though and like Sky, they will put any remotely big fight on PPV i.e Warrington v Frampton.

I think that's just the way it is in the UK now. With PPV's being only £20, i think they can get away with it more and no longer feel the need to put the big fights on regular subscription. Look at DeGale v Eubank, that's PPV too.

I see, so that bid by Hearn he was confident the PPV would cover that amount? Makes sense.

Yeah, they can get away with it not being heavily priced, but end of the year it adds up.

Right, in no way, shape or form should Degale/Eubank be on PPV. I don't care how cheap the PPV is, it isn't cheap enough lol. A fight like that is a fine UC fight for a PPV, but as a headliner? No way. And goes without saying it would have been great as a ITV opener.

[Randall Cunning]

I saw some clip of Hearn saying how can I tell Whyte to take 400k to fight on regular Sky when he can make much more on PPV. Okay fair, but why would Sky only be able to give him 400k? I may be wrong with the number I am mentioning, but thought it was around that range. Like would Sky not be able to offer a $3 million license fee for that card where Whyte/Chisora paid 7 figures? Having a $3 million license fee isn't all that much anyways. But if Whyte would only get like 400k, then that tells me Sky would only put up what, a total of $1.5 million for that card?

Really amazing how hard it is to get information on the UK boxing scene. All the purses to the commission are disclosed stateside (Not always accurate) so you have something to go off of at least. And then you get the budget numbers for the networks and what not. For the UK though? You get NOTHING. Not even any rumors of PPV sales. Like what did Wilder/Ortiz do on PPV in the UK? Within 10 days you knew it did around 325k in the states, but crickets in terms of the UK numbers.

Over/under if you had to guess the boxing budget for Sky being $30 million for the 16 yearly cards they put on regular Sky?

Regular Sky cards are in the few hundred thousands £'s for license fees. They aint getting the big numbers you may think 100k-200k viewers. Purses are made up with the money off the gate. Fury and Khan were able to get a higher purse/licence fee because they brought in over a million viewers each, but I'd bet Hearn and Warren made a loss on both there cards, with the hope of getting something back off PPV.

[EasternEuroFan]

Boxing is booming in the UK in terms of the fan turnout and just how much you guys support boxing in general. America is obviously MUCH bigger than the UK, yet good legitimate fights here don't even put 10k in the stands. Opposed to in the UK where you guys sell damn near every decent event. It isn't booming in terms of how much is invested in the sport by the networks.

I think that's to do with pricing as well though. I mean, you can get decent tickets to big fights in the o2 Arena for £40-60 sometimes.

If you go for a night out in London around bars, maybe something to eat, you're going to do in at least £80 just on drinking or eating. So it probably works out similar to get a ticket to a fight and having a few drinks at the fight.

A ticket for some fights in USA seems to cost a decent wedge out of the average mans monthly earnings. Where as here it's probably just a standard choice of going to the fight, or going for a night out in a club or whatever with not much price difference between the choices.

[KTFOKING]

I think that's to do with pricing as well though. I mean, you can get decent tickets to big fights in the o2 Arena for £40-60 sometimes.

If you go for a night out in London around bars, maybe something to eat, you're going to do in at least £80 just on drinking or eating. So it probably works out similar to get a ticket to a fight and having a few drinks at the fight.

A ticket for some fights in USA seems to cost a decent wedge out of the average mans monthly earnings. Where as here it's probably just a standard choice of going to the fight, or going for a night out in a club or whatever with not much price difference between the choices.

Yeah, that's definitely a fair point. People were talking crap on the Wilder/Fury attendance numbers, but they still did a gate of what, $3.5-4 million off 16k tickets sold? So the average ticket sold for that fight was over $200 dollars. I don't even want to do the math on GGG/Canelo as that fight did a gate over $25 million with less than 20,000 tickets sold LOL.

At this point it won't change in America. And why would it? The promoters rely more on what the networks give them opposed to how much they actually make on the live gate. That's why you see half hearted promotion on some cards as that is not all that important to them.

And for Haymon cards, since he does use "sham" promoters, he just has to pay them an fixed amount and then pays what that fight does on the gate to the fighters themselves. So if you are TGB or whoever he picks to promote the fight, how much of an effort are you going to put when the upside doesn't even go to you?

[KTFOKING]

Regular Sky cards are in the few hundred thousands £'s for license fees. They aint getting the big numbers you may think 100k-200k viewers. Purses are made up with the money off the gate. Fury and Khan were able to get a higher purse/licence fee because they brought in over a million viewers each, but I'd bet Hearn and Warren made a loss on both there cards, with the hope of getting something back off PPV.

Wow! That's much lower than I thought.