Eddie Hearns blames illegal streaming for why Wilder/Fury PPV lost money

[QballLobo]

It’s not that cut and dry. A lot of people that use an illegal stream weren’t going to buy the fight under any circumstances.
Either because they’re too broke or only tune in if they can watch it free.
So it’s not like you can just take those average stream number and just multiply it by $80.

[Guest]

That can’t happen. If there are more good matches, with good names on the undercards, then that will increase the amount of PPV’s they need to sell in order to compensate the better names on the undercard.

There have been fight cards that were good from top to bottom and still flopped.

There’s very few fighters who can afford to put decent matches on their undercards and these are fighters that come once a decade. They know they’re going to sell enough PPV’s to cover their guarantee, make a profit and leave money left over for good fighters on the undercard.

With that said, I stopped buying PPV’s a while ago. I think 2015 was the last time.

The thing about undercards, NOBODY buys the ppv for the undercard- only hardcores do that.

In every single big fight I have seen at parties and bars, very few people are watching until the main event so there isn't any incentive to make them great.


Love a good Don-King style undercard and definitely miss them.

[NaijaD]

Yeah PPVs are too expensive in the US, I wouldn’t buy any of them if they were £65..... that’s a lot of money to spend when it’s not difficult to get HD streams.

Right now I’m happy to part ways with £20-£25 for a PPV but if it keeps rising I won’t continue to do that.

[Inspired]

I’m surprised 800k homes bought this PPV at $80. With gate rev the whole fight generated a little over $100mill I imagine.

The fight may have lost money because of the fighter purses but damn did this fight made a crap ton of money with a pretty much dead platform. Nobody wants to buy no $80 dollar PPV. Idc how much money you make.

Despite not being a “success” I still applaud these PPV #s. I thought 500k would be a stretch.

people have said for a long time that the WHITE MIDDLE CLASS+ TEENAGER market is all there.
it's about reaching them.

When a fight gets mainstream attention, then it will sell.
Fox had ads on during the superball...that only means one thing.

They lost money, the networks, because they paid Wilder and Fury a fixed fee..and then there were the promotional costs and the network's costs. end result the networks lost money.
they should have paid wilder-fury less money, not guaranteed purses, but then they didnt want to lose the fight to Saudi.

apparently the third one will be in Saudi!!

[Guest]

people have said for a long time that the WHITE MIDDLE CLASS+ TEENAGER market is all there.
it's about reaching them.

When a fight gets mainstream attention, then it will sell.
Fox had ads on during the superball...that only means one thing.

They lost money, the networks, because they paid Wilder and Fury a fixed fee..and then there were the promotional costs and the network's costs. end result the networks lost money.
they should have paid wilder-fury less money, not guaranteed purses, but then they didnt want to lose the fight to Saudi.

apparently the third one will be in Saudi!!

God I hope not. Suppose they are throwing money out there to get people attracted to the desert and artificial everything. LOL.

[removed]

Hearn is 100% correct.

[champion4ever]

He is so spot on! Illegal streaming did cost theis event Millions of dollars in lost revenue and buys. It wasn't like this back in the 1990s when the internet was just born and still new.

For instance, back in the 90s; The average Mike Tyson and heavyweight championship bouts typically grossed a minimum of at least 1.5 to 2 mil buys.

This fight would have sold a lot more had it not been for the advent of the internet.

[Earl-Hickey]

Real men drink Guinness, not beers. Being in the UK the atmosphere was Fury crazy in the bar I was in, loved itttt!

I'm in Australia so it was a nice Sunday lunchtime fight, Fury was definitely the fan favourite here. I was kind of surprised how much interest there was for a fight that had no Australians lol

[Vinnykin]

Got to admit...... at my income, £25 was ok...... if it was £65 I would have streamed it.

No doubt most fight fans in America can't afford that price.

Lets drop it down to $50 and see what happens....

[Boxing_1013]

Spot on, and just as I mentioned.

I pay $100 per year for DAZN... but no way in hell was I paying $80 to watch one fight.

$20 to $30? I would. $80? Out of their minds.

So the illegal streamers... WERE NOT GOING TO PAY $80 TO BEGIN WITH!

Well said...